Jack Ma 's new company, whose English translation is Hangzhou Ma's Kitchen Food, was established last week in his hometown of Hangzhou, according to the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.
With a registered capital of 10 million yuan (1.4 million USD), it is wholly owned by Hangzhou Dajingtou No. 22 Arts and Culture.
This is another joint venture of Mr. Jack Ma established in 2019 for investment transactions in China, where Mr. Jack Ma holds 99.9% of shares.
The company's business scope extends to the sale of pre-packaged foods, processing and retailing of edible agricultural products, according to Ma's Kitchen.
Jason Pau - executive director of international programs at the Jack Ma Foundation charity - is listed as the company's CEO and general manager.
Xu Shi, another former executive at Jack Ma's fund, is overseeing the new business, according to Chinese media, citing information from corporate registration data provider Tianyancha.
Ma's Kitchen will deliver pre-prepared meals - an industry that is booming in China as investors look to cash in on changing lifestyles during the pandemic.
The company's reference to pre-packaged foods did not refer to ready-to-eat meals, a local newspaper reported.
The domestic ready-to-eat food industry is expected to reach around 510 billion yuan in revenue this year, with the potential to double in the next three years, according to a report by iiMedia Research.
Jack Ma, who stepped down as Alibaba chairman on his 55th birthday in 2019, has turned to agriculture and education in recent years.
Since leaving the e-commerce giant, the billionaire has traveled the world and visited an agricultural lab in the Netherlands, a tuna farm in Japan, and a night market in Thailand to better understand his new passion.
Ma's Kitchen is not the only one betting on agriculture. In July, he was found to be behind a seafood and agriculture startup called 1.8 Metres Marine Technology, which had registered capital of 110 million yuan.
Its business scope includes aquatic products, feed and food processing.
He still wields considerable influence over Alibaba, and after his return to China earlier this year, Alibaba began its biggest corporate restructuring ever, splitting the sprawling conglomerate into six independent business units.
The overhaul faced its first major challenge on November 16 when the company paused plans to publicly list its cloud unit Alibaba Cloud.
On the same day, Jack Ma’s family trust announced plans to sell $870 million in Alibaba shares. This news, combined with the uncertain fate of Alibaba Cloud, sent the stock plunging more than 10%.
Jane Jiang, Alibaba's chief people officer, explained in an internal letter earlier this week that Jack Ma plans to use the proceeds from the stock sale to support his philanthropic and agricultural technology initiatives, but he has not sold any Alibaba shares because the stock is currently "very undervalued."
(According to SCMP)
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