All eyes on Fore as IPO gives 1st sip of cafe startup listings

Fore Coffee’s IPO, slated for April 14, couldn’t have come at a more chaotic time.

Indonesia’s stock market has nosedived to its lowest point since 2021, which triggered a rare trading halt on March 18. Consumers are pulling back, even during Eid – a holiday known for indulgence. And the eFishery scandal has cast a long shadow over the country’s tech scene.

Photo credit: Fore Coffee

“We don’t wait for perfect market timing to optimize the valuation,” says Willson Cuaca, managing partner of East Ventures, which is Fore’s primary backer. “We also want to show that a company with good business is defensible in any market condition and is able to create value for public investors.”

Now, all eyes – including Fore’s competitors – are on the coffee chain to deliver a shot of optimism.

Fore did not respond to Tech in Asia‘s requests for comment.

Is Fore’s domestic-focused business defensible?

Compared to past tech IPOs on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, Fore’s US$24 million target is relatively modest. Kopi Kenangan has nearly 1,000 stores – about 4x of Fore’s branches – and its listing, while still unannounced, will likely be bigger.

As the first of the bunch to IPO, however, a lot hinges on Fore.

“Everybody in the industry is very keen to see what happens,” says Aston Utan, co-founder and CEO at coffee chain Common Grounds. “Plenty of F&B companies or groups have IPO’d,” he says, but this is the first coffee-focused one.

As Utan points out, Indonesia’s cafes and coffee shops traditionally raise funds on a grassroots level: either by finding angel investors or taking on the franchise model. That changed when Fore and Kopi Kenangan raised VC funds, paving the way for other players like Jago Coffee or even Common Grounds to raise institutional money.

A successful IPO for Fore would open up even more financing sources for coffee startups. But the timing is certainly interesting.

Fore Coffee team at the opening of its Singapore store / Photo credit: Fore Coffee

With US President Donald Trump just announcing new tariffs to virtually every US trade partner, investors may “shift portfolios away from developing countries,” says Bhima Yudhistira, founder of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios).

Is a Tier 2-focused strategy still sound?

Can other brands follow suit?