Kuwait-based COFE app, a coffee-centric marketplace app, has raised $3.2 million in a pre-Series A funding from venture capital funds in the region and Silicon Valley, according to an official release.
The round was led by KISP Ventures, a fund established by KFH Capital (Kuwait), and other investors including 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.
Founded in 2017 by Ali Al Ebrahim, COFE app connects coffee house chains and independent roasters with consumers via an app. The app connects independent brands and local and international franchise chains with customers to sell their coffee online.
Currently an iOS-only app, the app enables customers to order and pay for their coffee and choose from different delivery options including fast delivery to their office or home, counter pick up, and car pick up service by making the coffee ordering process easier, fast and efficient.
“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,” said the COFE App Founder and CEO.
The app was beta launched in February 2018. Since then, the app has been featured in Forbes Middle East annual list of “Top 50 startups to watch for in the Arab world” and was chosen among the most promising 100 Arab Start Ups by The Arab Youth Centre in Dubai, UAE.
COFE App said in the statement that the coffee category is one of the world’s fastest-growing beverage categories worldwide. The sector attracted $600 million investment 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 $1 billion by year-end.
Source Deal Street Asia