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About time too? Ofo founder’s US coffee break is broken

About Time Coffee, the new venture project of DAI Wei, the founder of bygone bike-sharing firm Ofo, has – to very little surprise - stopped expansion in the US.

Two of About Time Coffee’s shops in New York City have been closed for more than two months. Four more are still struggling on. Several sources close to the matter told the media Monday that there was no more money in the coffee pot.

It was previously reported that About Time Coffee had received funds from Chinese VCs including ZhenFund and IDG Capital and was seeking a new financing round to push the valuation of the café chain to US$200 million (1.4 billion yuan).

That’s a lot of money for four pretty ordinary shops in a city where coffee shops are more common than parking spaces.

Although Dai claims to have started the venture, he is merely a minor shareholder. Marian Chen, CEO of About Time Coffee, said Dai plays no part in the operations of the company but connected the coffee chain with investors.

Dai has kept a low profile for good reason. His first venture, Ofo, still owes more than 10 million users over a billion yuan. The bike-sharing firm ran out of cash in 2017 and raided the customer-deposit fund. In 2020, Ofo deserted its offices and disappeared.

Dai is on a Chinese government blacklist but seems to be living it up in the Big Apple rather than paying back money embezzled from share-bikers.（本段为发音精讲部分，具体语音讲解请微信关注【可可英语晨读公众号】）

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