January 2018 - Luckin Coffee, co-founded by CEO Qian Zhiya, the former chief operating officer of car rental firm Car Inc and two other senior executives, officially started operations in Beijing and Shanghai.

June 2018 - Luckin raised $200 million in its maiden fundraising round https://cn.reuters.com/article/luckin-coffee-fundraising-idCNL4N1U71U1 which valued the startup at $1 billion and made it one of the quickest firms to reach 'unicorn' status in China. Investors included Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC [GIC.UL], Chinese investment firms Centurium Capital and Joy Capital.

November 2018 - Luckin raised $200 million https://www.reuters.com/article/us-luckin-coffee-fundraising/chinese-startup-luckin-coffees-valuation-doubles-to-22-billion-idUSKBN1OB0I2 in its second funding round which increased the company's valuation to $2.2 billion. Investors included GIC, Centurium Capital, Joy Capital and CICC.

April 2019 - Luckin raised $150 million in a pre-IPO fundraising round from investors including BlackRock Inc, which valued the company at $2.9 billion.

May 2019 - Luckin priced its U.S. initial public offering at $17 per share and raised $645 million after fully exercising the greenshoe option. The float was the second biggest U.S. IPO by a Chinese firm last year, according to Refinitiv.

December 2019 - Luckin overtook Starbucks as China's biggest coffee chain by number of stores. Luckin said it had just over 4,500 stores - achieving a goal it set one year ago and topping Starbucks which had 4,100.

January 2020 - Luckin expanded into vending machines to sell freshly brewed hot beverages and snacks, seeking even more of the China market. It also completed a follow-on share sale and a convertible bond worth a combined $980 million.

February 2020 - Short-seller Muddy Waters Research shorted the Luckin stock, citing an anonymous report that questioned the coffee chain's financials. Luckin called the report's methodology flawed and denied all allegations.

April 2020 - Luckin said on April 2 that an internal investigation had shown its chief operating officer, Jian Liu, and other employees fabricated sales transactions. Its shares fell as much as 81% in New York on Thursday, wiping $5 billion off its market capitalisation.

(Reporting by Julie Zhu; Additional reporting by Pei Li; Editing by Nick Macfie)

By Julie Zhu