Kopi Kenangan Receives Additional Series A Funding, Aims for Regional Expansion

Startups new retail Kopi Kenangan announces additional Series A funding from Arrive, Serena Ventures, NBA basketball player Caris LeVert, and Sweetgreen founder Jonathan Neman with an undisclosed amount. Sequoia India, which is leading the funding series A worth $20 million in June 2019, also participated in this round.

Arrive is a VC founded by international celebrity Jay-Z, marking his second debut in funding startups in ASEAN. Meanwhile, Serena Ventures is a VC formed by international tennis player Serena William. These two VCs are equally focused on early-stage funding.

"We want to build brand and we are very pleased to be working with our new investors and advisors who have successfully built global consumer franchises in sports, entertainment, food and beverage, and technology," said Kopi Kenangan Founder & CEO Edward Tirtanata in an official statement.

Edward said the funding would be used to launch expansion into ASEAN, adding more than 1000 stores in the next two years. It is noted that Kopi Kenangan has been present in more than 200 outlets nationwide in 18 cities, employing 1800 employees.

This rapid increase was felt, he continued, last year the company only managed 16 shops and sold several thousand glasses per day. Now the company manages to sell more than 3 million cups of coffee per month.

The company claims to have recorded profits and achieved 20-fold revenue growth since receiving early-stage led funding Alpha JWC last year.

"We have grown rapidly since this business started two years ago and we want to continue to learn, and improve our services and products to meet the expectations of our customers in Indonesia and other countries."

Kopi Kenangan was founded in 2017 by Edward Tirtanata, James Prananto, and Cynthia Chaerunnisa. The company has succeeded in filling the gap between the expensive coffee served by international coffee retailers, which some Indonesians cannot afford, and the instant coffee sold by roadside shops.

According to the Nielsen Company, Kopi Kenangan is a brand with top-of-mind awareness number one for the Kopi Susu category and the number two brand after international coffee chains for the general coffee category.