As you all know, Rubio invests in ventures that are ready to take a leap to create systemic change and positive impact. We like to call them ‘champions of change’. One of our champions of change is Wakuli, an amazing venture that aims to decommoditize coffee and boost smallholder farmer income by selling high-quality coffee direct-to-consumer. Wakuli uses a subscription model, offering weekly to monthly mail deliveries.
The Wakuli brand was born in a chaotic start-up period in Tanzania, and this is where the foundations of the Wakuli way of doing business were laid. Just 2.5 years later, by delivering their coffee with impact, they have already succeeded in connecting smallholder farmers from all over the world with 15,000 consumers in the Netherlands. And now, just like we planned last November, it is time for the next step. Wakuli is ready to wake up the rest of Europe and recently made the leap to enter the German market.
We are intrigued by the impact that Wakuli is creating, and asked them about their journey so far. How did they get started, what difficulties did they encounter and what happened when the company started to take off? What was the expected impact, and most importantly: what impact was generated?
