The Danish startup Kaffe Bueno, incubated in La Salle Technova, closes an investment round of more than one million euros
Kaffe Bueno, a Danish biotech startup that converts coffee residues into functional ingredients for cosmetics, nutraceuticals and food, has closed an investment round of 1,100,000 euros. The company is part of the pan-European incubator created within the framework of Scale-up Champions, a project funded by the European Commission within the H2020 program and in which La Salle-URL and La Salle Technova participate together with four science parks and university centers from Estonia, Denmark, Lithuania and Poland.
The Danish startup, founded in 2016, has received investment from the Finnish fund Pulig Group Venture Capital, the Danish fund Vækstfonden, the Irish accelerator The Yield Lab and a business angel from Denmark. According to its managers, this economic injection will allow the company "to increase its production scale, grow the team and continue with the research and development processes in the field of industrial biotechnology." Investors have chosen Kaffe Bueno for its sustainable philosophy and its goal of making better use of the subproducts of the industry.
Health, food and personal care
“The power of coffee is amazing. Growing up in Colombia we realized that coffee is much more than a drink, we use it for everything: healing wounds, skin care, desserts, whatever”, explains Juan Medina, CEO of Kaffe Bueno and one of its three co-founders; the other two entrepreneurs responsible for the startup are also Colombian. Kaffe Bueno exploits the potential of coffee and implements a circular business model. It currently has three products on the market and its oil made from recycled coffee, Kaffe Bueno Oil, is part of the ingredient list of several European and North American cosmetic brands.
The company recently started pan-European incubator sessions at La Salle Technova, La Salle-URL's innovation park. The CEO of Kaffe Bueno vindicates the importance of the company's mission: "Our aim is to play an important role in the emerging bioeconomy, unlocking the health potential of coffee, using its subproduct and recycling it into ingredients that promote health." In addition, he says that this round of investment will allow them to grow in all aspects: "We can change the rhythm and increase production to meet customer demands and accelerate the development of our next wave of products."
Scale-up Champions, innovation support for corporates with an entrepreneurial spirit
In a complex business environment agitated by circumstances, innovation has become an obligation. In this context, the European project Scale-up Champions is being developed, in which international experts sponsor companies from across the continent to expand and consolidate their journey as startups and thus become successful scaleups. The objective of the project is to help European technology-based startups scale up by connecting different ecosystems and standardizing growth routes on the continent. In addition to the pan-European incubator, the project helps startups prepare and engage with investors, and connect them with large companies seeking to solve their innovation challenges with the disruptive contributions of start-ups.