Coffee startup Fore Coffee secures US$8.5M funding

On Feb 1, 2019

Fore Coffee, an on-demand specialty coffee startup based in Indonesia, has announced a fresh funding raised from East Ventures. Joining East Ventures’ investment are SMDV, Pavilion Capital, Agaeti Venture Capital, Insignia Ventures Partners, and some angel investors.

The company said that it will use the fresh fund to accelerate more innovation to provide high-quality and seamless online-to-offline customer experience – which include good, easy to find, fast service, and friendly prices coffee.

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Furthermore, Fore Coffee said it will also invest in high technology machine to develop new products.

As of today, Indonesia is in fact the second largest land plantation for coffee in the world right after Brazil. However, its productivity index is only able to produce 520 kg/HA lower compared to Vietnam with 2,445 kg/HA, making Indonesia sits at number 4 coffee exporter among “The Bean Belt” countries.

Fore Coffee was born with the belief that Indonesia can do better. Fore Coffee, founded by Robin Boe, Jhoni Kusno, and Elisa Suteja, aims to revitalise Indonesia specialty coffee, especially Arabica beans.

“We decided to use only Arabica beans, which translate to higher income for the local farmer, with a certified organic farm and certified fair trade. We roast the bean locally to keep its freshness, brewed by trained barista, and deliver it as and when the consumer wants it. We use the mix of technology, our self-built mobile app and existing built technology to track and monitor payment, loyalty platform, and distribution platform,” said Robin Boe, CEO of Fore Coffee.

“Fore Coffee is a new kind of SME that won’t be able to exist in Indonesia a couple years ago. But today, the mature digital ecosystem in Indonesia has allowed it to answer the question: ‘how could we improve the Indonesian coffee industry’s value chain in today digital economy context?’,” said Willson Cuaca, Managing Partner East Ventures.