Kuwait-based COFE App, a coffee-centric marketplace app, announced today that it has secured USD 3.2 million in their Pre-Series A funding, attracting a multi-national cross-sector base of entrepreneurs and venture capital (VC) funds from the Middle East and Silicon Valley.
The round was led by KISP ventures, a fund established by KFH Capital (Kuwait) and Cedar Mundi (Lebanon), Towell Holding International (Oman), Takamul Capital and Dividend Gate Capital (Bahrain), Nizar AlNusif Sons Holding and Arab Investment Company (Kuwait). The investment was facilitated by FTL Legal Services.
Conceptualized in Kuwait and developed in Silicon Valley,
COFE App Founder and CEO, Mr. Ali Al Ebrahim said: “We are a group of coffee enthusiasts who – in the age of Tesla, Uber, and Airbnb – got frustrated with old-world ways of ordering coffee. So we set out to streamline the coffee ordering process and bring to our mobiles phones and everyone else’s as well, aiming to bring the coffee culture and technology together in one unified platform. Today, we have a fast-growing state-of-the-art app that enables customers to order their favorite coffee from their favorite coffee house, and an app that has the potential to transform and grow our vendor’s revenue streams. Needless to say, it’s been a very exciting year for us at COFE App, and as we make this announcement today, and welcome our new investors on board, we are more focused than ever on growing our customer base both in Kuwait and abroad”.
COFE App enables customers to order and pay for their coffee, and choose from multiple delivery options, including fast delivery to their office or home, counter pick up, and car pick up service. The entire selection and purchasing process takes place in the app, which offers comprehensive menus and drink customization options.
The coffee category is one of the world’s fastest growing beverage categories worldwide, with over USD 600 million invested in coffee-related startups globally for the first seven months of 2018 – almost four times the investments of 2017 according to data from CB Insights who are expecting the figure to hit USD 1 billion by year-end. The sector has also witnessed a series of a high profile, multi-billion dollar merger and acquisition activity in 2018. High profile examples include Coca Cola Co.’s $5.1 billion acquisition of Costa Coffee and JAB’s USD2 billion acquisition of Pret-a-Manger.