Successfully Collects 147 Billion Rupiah Funds, Fore Coffee Boosts Expansion

After raising funding of around US$9,5 million or equivalent to 147 billion Rupiah, ForeCoffee still continuing to boost market expansion, to continue to increase the number of o which is currently around 100 units. They have also expanded services to Bandung, Surabaya, and Medan. Since its release in 2018, the Fore Coffee application is claimed to have experienced positive sales growth and has a growing number of teams.

To DailySocial Co-founder Elisa Suteja revealed that a lot of business growth occurred after Fore Coffee closed its series A funding last April 2019, with an additional US$1 million completing the previous round of US$8,5 million. The funding was led by East Ventures. Also joined were SMDV, Pavilion Capital, Agaeti Venture Capital, and several angel investors involved in the funding round.

"In addition to expanding, we are also increasingly active in establishing partnerships with several companies brand local," said Elisa.

Previously Fore Coffee has also established a strategic partnership with Airy, an Accommodation Network Operator (ANO) company in Indonesia based on partnerships. Synergy signifies the commitment of the two companies in the expansion movement in 1000 locations.

This year, there are several targets that Fore wants to achieve. One of them is ensuring to be able to provide the best service to customers, despite changes in the habits of the target customers.

"Customer behavior will evolve as the market evolves. I think 2019 was an interesting year for Indonesian customers, with a lot of encouragement to use a number of different digital wallets, influencing how comfortable they are with transacting via their mobile phones. We see less and less people using money cash at this time," said Elisa.

In Indonesia, Fore has several competitors. One of them is a startup that received initial support from Alpha JWC Ventures, namely: Memories Coffee. They just closed their series A funding in December 2019 and it was around US$20 million.

In terms of products, there are even more competitors, because the coffee beverage business is on the rise, especially targeting the productive age group. One of the players who also benefited was Soul Promise.

The challenge of running a business during a pandemic

In the middle spread of Covid-19 This is a challenge for Fore Coffee to keep running the business. However, seeing the potential that exists, the company seeks to see and learn from current conditions so that 'business as usual' still able to walk. The company also strives to ensure that it can learn from the current crisis to make a better company. Fore Coffee can still be enjoyed directly with the service delivered via Fore, GoFood, or GrabFood.

One of the strategic steps taken by Fore Coffee is to launch a series of traditional herbal products to meet the needs of urban consumers for herbal drink products with local flavors. The two new menus, namely Wedang Uwuh and Temulawak Spices, are available at the Fore Coffee store and ordered online online.

"Through sales online and delivered, Fore's target is to bring traditional Indonesian drinks closer to the Indonesian people and easy to reach so that they can be enjoyed by anyone at any time, especially at times like this. With easy application settings, customers can also send this drink to their family and relatives," said Elisa.