LONDON – Cafédirect, one of the UK’s biggest coffee brands, announced on May 14 it has acquired Cambridge-based online coffee club Kopi.co.uk. The Kopi/Cafédirect deal is the fifth notable transaction in recent times involving the sale of an e-commerce subscription business, closely following the high-profile sale of US coffee subscription club Tonx to the Index Ventures-backed Blue Bottle Coffee Company last month.
It also follows in the footsteps of LOVEFiLM (sold to Amazon), Graze (sold to Carlyle Group) and JolieBox (sold to Birchbox).
Cafédirect has now acquired Kopi’s custom-built subscription software, a passionate subscriber base, and an opportunity to move into the e-commerce space. Kopi, in turn, can leverage the hugely respected Cafédirect brand and its coffee sourcing and operational prowess to rapidly build its subscriber base.
Kopi only raised one small round of funding during its two-and-a-half years of business, from Cambridge-based incubator and digital marketing agency Genieventures.co.uk, and reached operational break-even in mid-2013.
Philip Wilkinson, co-founder of Kopi, says: “We’ve always known the coffee subscription sector needed a big, respected brand to drive awareness. Cafédirect has turned out to be the perfect partner for our mission: to bring the world’s best fresh coffee to coffee lovers every month.”
Much speculation has been made over the future of e-commerce subscription models, where customers pay a monthly fee to receive a regular, curated product through the post. Today’s deal provides further evidence that these groundbreaking companies will continue to partner with bigger retail brands in order to scale their customer base.
John Steel, CEO of Cafédirect, explains: “This acquisition allows us to develop small batches of premium, bespoke coffees which it would not usually be possible for us to sell in supermarkets. We were very impressed with the team, the technology, and the superb product Kopi has built over the years – and we’re excited to bring them into the business.”
