# UMe Tea

> UMe Tea is a California-based bubble tea chain founded in 2019 by former Silicon Valley engineer Jiachun 'Summer' Li. Built around fruit-forward, less-sugary recipes tuned to American palates, the brand pairs handcrafted drinks and snacks with viral marketing - most notably a surprise bunny plushie hidden in the bottom of its cups. Bootstrapped and profitable for its first four years, UMe grew to roughly 30 Bay Area stores before raising a $10M Series A led by Conductive Ventures in 2025 to fund team-building and regional expansion.

- **Founded:** 2019
- **Headquarters:** Cupertino, California, United States
- **Founders:** Jiachun "Summer" Li (CEO & Co-Founder)
- **Team size:** ~42 employees (LinkedIn); staff across ~30 store locations
- **Products:** Fruit teas, Milk teas & classic boba, Matcha & yogurt drinks, Snacks, Surprise Plushie Cup
- **Notable:** Bootstrapped to profitability from year one and stayed profitable for four years before taking outside capital., Grew from a single 2019 store to roughly 30 California locations., Raised a $10M Series A led by Conductive Ventures in 2025.

## Products & services

- **Fruit teas** — Fruit-based tea recipes sourced from local farms with rotating seasonal releases, positioned as a lighter alternative to sugary tapioca milk teas.
- **Milk teas & classic boba** — Signature milk teas including Brown Sugar Boba and Mochi Black Milk Tea, tuned for richer, sweeter American palates.
- **Matcha & yogurt drinks** — Uji Strawberry Matcha Latte, yogurt-based beverages, slushies, and caffeine-free options.
- **Snacks** — Salted crispy / popcorn chicken, fries, and chicken strips; salted crispy chicken alone accounts for roughly 30% of sales.
- **Surprise Plushie Cup** — A signature $6.6 cup with a mystery bunny-mascot plushie hidden in the bottom, revealed by peeling open the cup - a blind-box-inspired viral mechanic.

## Achievements

- Bootstrapped to profitability from year one and stayed profitable for four years before taking outside capital.
- Grew from a single 2019 store to roughly 30 California locations.
- Raised a $10M Series A led by Conductive Ventures in 2025.
- Built an automated mixing system that cut barista training from 2-3 days to about 2 hours.
- Reported 70-80% gross margins - comparable to software businesses.
- Turned its surprise bunny plushie into a viral, user-generated TikTok phenomenon.
- Achieved three-month payback on a recent new-store opening.

## Latest updates

- **2025-10** — Closed a $10M Series A led by Conductive Ventures, with iFly.vc and EGP (Mingyu Ventures) participating, to fund team expansion and Bay Area store growth.
- **2025-01** — Operating roughly 27-30 stores with a target of 33 by year-end; single-store sales up about 30% year-over-year.
- **2024-01** — Continued Bay Area densification with new locations planned in Walnut Creek, San Jose, San Mateo, and San Francisco.
- **2023-06** — Announced $2.2M seed round from iFly.vc and launched its viral surprise-plushie cup while running nine profitable California stores.

## Links

- Website: https://umeteaca.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ume-tea
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzvOkLQfsD4
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/umetea/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/umeteausa/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/discover/ume-tea-surprise-plush

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/ume-tea
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-10