Ex-Fave boss Joel Neoh, Pickup Coffee backers invest in Malaysian coffee upstart

Photo credit: Koppiku

Kuala Lumpur-based Koppiku is the newest Malaysian coffee chain and it boasts a roster of prominent angel investors.

Koppiku (which means “my coffee” in Malay) will be launching its maiden store in the upscale Kuala Lumpur suburb of Mont Kiara on September 1. The firm’s major shareholder is Malaysian entrepreneur Rajiv Bhanot, according to company filings.

Bhanot tells Tech in Asia that Koppiku initially plans to expand through company-operated stores as opposed to conventional franchising.

The firm will be pricing its beverages between 5 ringgit (US$1.07) and 9.90 ringgit (US$2.13), excluding substitutions and add-ons, First Move co-founder Audra Pakalnyte tells Tech in Asia. First Move, an early-stage fund founded by former Fave executives Joel Neoh and Pakalnyte, is among Koppiku’s pre-seed investors.

This effectively puts the upstart in the same group as other coffee chains making inroads in the country, such as local players ZUS Coffee and Gigi Coffee as well as Indonesia’s Kopi Kenangan.

Koppiku’s other Malaysian investors include Bhanot’s younger brother, Sachin, who heads Prosus Ventures’ Southeast Asian arm; AC Ventures managing partner Hann Yeoh; RHL Ventures co-founder Raja Hamzah Abidin; and Singapore-based VC firm Antifragile Ventures, which is headed by Angelo Lee, the co-founder of Philippines-based grocery platform SariSuki.

Two of Koppiku’s angel investors, Yeoh and Antifragile Ventures, are also backers of Philippine coffee chain Pickup Coffee.

Pakalnyte tells Tech in Asia that First Move invested in Koppiku following the results of a closed-group consumer survey that showed “promising acceptance” of new coffee-chain players entering the Malaysian market.

She added that Koppiku plans to open more outlets throughout the Klang Valley – encompassing Kuala Lumpur and Selangor – later this year but didn’t disclose the targeted number of stores.

See more: Malaysia’s coffee scene heats up as foreign players take on local firms

Currency converted from Malaysian ringgit to US dollar: US$1 = 4.64 ringgit.