Belgium’s Koppie Joins the Growing Coffee Substitute Crowd

Koppie press release photo.

A Belgian startup called Koppie is joining the growing coffee substitute movement, developing a proprietary fermented legume-based ingredient that can be roasted, ground and brewed like coffee.

Koppie just closed an undisclosed pre-seed funding round led by Germany-based food-tech-focused firm Nucleus Capital and two other venture capital firms, plus “several high-impact angel investors,” according to the company.

Based in Ghent, Koppie was one of 12 bio-food companies in the fall 2024 cohort of the accelerator and early investor firm Biotope.

In an announcement shared with DCN, the company said that the pre-seed funding will support product scaling, pilot collaborations with roasters and sensory development of its “Koppie Bean” products.

“We see strong interest from coffee companies looking for low-risk ways to increase supply and price stability,” Koppie Founder Daan Raemdonck said. “Hybrid blends, where our products are introduced up to 50% offer a way to reduce pressure while appealing to evolving consumer needs.”

Koppie logo

Koppie says that its core product consists of locally sourced legumes that are subjected to natural fermentation prior to roasting.

Saying that the fermented peas can be used just like coffee in coffee roasting, grinding and brewing equipment, the company is pitching the in-development product as a price-stable supplement to existing coffee supplies among coffee roasters.

“Koppie is not positioning its product as a full replacement but as an integrative ingredient for innovation,” the company said. “Current R&D efforts are focused on fermentation perfection, modular blending, and product applications in pods, filter, and RTD formats.”

Koppie joins a growing list of VC-backed startups throughout the world offering alternatives to traditional coffee that are composed either of other natural ingredients, lab-grown coffee or a combination of both.

In the U.S., major players in the natural ingredients coffee-alternative category include Seattle-based Atomo, which has made inroads with New York coffee chain Bluestone Lane while raising more than $58 million in VC, and Oakland-based Voyage Foods, which has raised more than $117 million, according to Crunchbase News.

The website of another Bay Area-based coffee-substitute brand called Minus Coffee, which launched products as recently as January after raising at least $4.7 million, has gone dark, although the brand’s founder is also behind the coffee-free ingredient startup Compound Foods.

Koppie press release photo.

In Europe, Koppie’s most-developed plant-based coffee competitor may be Northern Wonder, which offers a blend of roasted cereals, legumes, fruits and chicory for a coffee-like product. The Dutch company has raised at least €1 million.

Central to the pitches of all these companies is climate volatility and its long-term threats to the global coffee supply amidst rising demand. Koppie is no exception.

“We believe the path forward for coffee innovation mirrors the dairy and meat industry — hybrid products will be the first to scale,” Raemdonck said in the announcement. “We want to offer roasters, retailers and CPG brands a reliable, flavor-forward tool to reduce supply chain pain sustainably.”

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