Singapore
Singapore-based tech-enabled coffee chain Flash Coffee has announced the successful completion of its Series B financing round led by White Star Capital, raising a total of US$50 million following its latest closing. Existing investors including White Star Capital, Delivery Hero, Geschwister Oetker, and Conny & Co, participated in the financing round – with several of them further increasing their stake in the company.
The new funds will be channelled towards accelerating the company’s mission to achieve group-level profitability. This includes sustainably growing its footprint across the Asia Pacific region to serve high-quality specialty coffee to customers in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and South Korea, doubling down on technology and product innovation and further developing the sales performance of existing stores.
Flash Coffee has experienced exponential growth over the past two years, with a 23-fold increase in year-on-year revenue in 2021, followed by another four-fold year-on-year increase in 2022 while achieving more than 100 percentage points year-on-year EBITDA improvement on a group level in the same year. With stores being solidly profitable across the region, the company is on track to reach group level profitability in 2024, with the first markets set to become EBITDA positive in the coming months.
Flash Coffee will continue expanding deeper into its most mature market, Indonesia, where the fast-growing middle class is rapidly driving coffee consumption in Southeast Asia’s most populous country. Following the company’s successful entry into Bandung – its first expansion outside of a capital city – with 11 outlets across the metropolitan area of over 8.8 million inhabitants, Flash Coffee will be officially launching in the vibrant city of Surabaya in July 2023.
“We are grateful to have the continued backing of our shareholders in this financing round. With 100% of our 92 stores in Indonesia being profitable, we have found a solid product market fit and are eager to expand our presence into additional cities in Indonesia to further drive sustainable growth. Offering a product that people love and following our ongoing trajectory of topline and profitability improvements, we are confident that we will reach our overarching goal of being profitable on a group level next year,” said David Brunier, Founder & CEO of Flash Coffee.
“We are proud to further strengthen our investment in Flash Coffee, which has demonstrated impressive growth in a very short period of time. We stand by the company’s mission to broaden access to premium coffee for consumers across Asia using the power of technology, and believe that the brand has resonated strongly with its audience. Flash Coffee is well-positioned to become a leading coffee chain in the region, and we look forward to continuing working closely with the team to support their continued growth and progress towards profitability,” said Joe Wei, General Partner of White Star Capital.
