Rubio’s latest: Beans, filter or cups?

We are happy to share Rubio’s first Fund 2 investment in Wakuli, a young Dutch coffee company that aims to decommoditize coffee and boost smallholder farmer income. Wakuli sells high quality coffee direct-to-consumer with a subscription model in weekly to monthly deliveries through your mailbox.

An estimated 12 million farms and 25 million families depend on coffee for their livelihood. Many smallholder farmers live in poverty, with ~25-50% earning (far) below a living income. Their quality coffee is mostly treated as commodity and relationships with buyers are transactional, which leaves them caught in a vicious cycle of underearning and underinvestment. Wakuli’s mission is to break this poverty cycle and enable smallholder farmers to invest in their farms to move towards a living income and a more sustainable livelihood.

Wakuli sells high quality coffee (cupping score > 80) in subscription form through direct trade, skipping the middle man & retail channel, resulting in a better price for the farmer and fresher coffee with more impact for the consumer. Founders Yorick & Lucas form a highly complementary leadership team with strong commercial and impact drive. Yorick Bruins spent several years working in coffee cooperatives in countries such as Tanzania and Nepal and is deeply passionate about coffee and improving the lives of smallholder farmers. Lukas Grosfeld is passionate about startups, growth and metrics, and is the brain behind the growth marketing engine.

With our funding the company will continue to scale-up in the Netherlands and expand to surrounding countries in 2021 and we target to increase income at farmer level by at least 25% for thousands of smallholder farmers and their dependents.

We hope all our Friends will celebrate this new investment with fresh Wakuli coffee through the mail, please click here to order your first Wakuli coffee!