In August 2017, on a Jakarta street in the Kuningan district, three young people pooled 150 million Indonesian rupiah, roughly $10,000, to set up a small coffee stall without any seating. Their sign, crookedly written, read Kopi Kenangan, meaning "coffee memories" in Indonesian. Their initial goal was simple: survive the next three months.
Eight years later, that company is negotiating with investment banks for an IPO, targeting a valuation of up to $1 billion. Its shareholder list includes tennis star Serena Williams, rapper Jay-Z, Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC. The chain now operates 1,324 stores across six countries, growing from a $10,000 start to a $1 billion valuation over eight years, with five of those years spent in financial losses.
From Coal Trading to Coffee
Edward Tirtanata grew up in Jakarta. His father was a serial entrepreneur, while his mother distributed imported skincare products. During high school, he earned pocket money trading Pokémon cards, and later studied finance and accounting at Northeastern University in Boston. When his family faced financial difficulties, he compressed his four-year degree into two and a half years.
After graduating in 2010, Tirtanata returned to Indonesia and worked alongside his father in the coal trading business. By 2014 and 2015, international coal prices collapsed. Tirtanata has frequently recounted this experience, stating that commodity prices are beyond one's control, and that to succeed, one must operate a business with pricing power.
He first opened a high-end tea shop, selling cups for 40,000 to 60,000 Indonesian rupiah, but quickly realized it was too far removed from the average consumer. At that time, Indonesia's coffee market had a clear gap. On one end was Starbucks, with cups costing 35,000 to 50,000 rupiah, a price point beyond the reach of ordinary workers. On the other end were street vendors selling instant coffee for 8,000 rupiah, which was cheap but lacked quality.
Tirtanata saw an opportunity in the middle. He enlisted his high school friend James Prananto, along with marketing expert Cynthia Chaerunnisa, and the three pooled the 1.5 billion rupiah. Their first store sold a signature palm sugar coffee, using local Indonesian beans, sweetened condensed milk, and palm sugar syrup, priced at 22,000 rupiah, or about $1.30 per cup.
The brand's breakout product was a drink called "Kopi Kenangan Mantan," which translates to "Ex-Girlfriend Coffee." Its logo featured a bleeding heart. How did this product gain popularity? Tirtanata later recalled that in the third week of operation, a regular customer, heartbroken after a breakup, finished two cups at the stall and jokingly said, "You should call it 'Ex-Girlfriend Coffee'—drink it and you'll remember the person who won't answer your calls." The team heard the joke, changed the name the next day, and by the third day, people were lining up to take photos of the drink, posting captions like "drinking to mourn a dead love." Within a week, young people across Jakarta were sharing photos of the bleeding heart logo.
Indonesia's street coffee culture is inherently emotional, with friends gathering at small shops called Warkop to chat, where coffee is a background element. Kopi Kenangan transformed this daily ritual into a brand symbol. Growth was rapid. In 2018, the company secured $8 million in seed funding from Indonesian venture capital firm Alpha JWC. In 2019, Sequoia Capital India led a $20 million Series A round, with Serena Williams and Jay-Z also investing through their respective platforms. A $109 million Series B round in May 2020 valued the company at $477 million; investors included Li Ka-shing's Horizons Ventures, Saverin's B Capital, and Chinese firm Kunlun Tech.
While others contracted during the pandemic, Kopi Kenangan used its app and delivery services to more than triple its store count. In April 2022, it received an award from the Indonesian Museum of Records for opening 26 stores in 13 cities within a single week. A $96 million Series C round in December 2021 pushed the valuation past $1 billion, making Kopi Kenangan Southeast Asia's first food and beverage unicorn. It took just four years to go from its first stall to unicorn status.
Five Years of Losses for a Unicorn
After becoming a unicorn, Kopi Kenangan began to expand aggressively. The company incubated several new brands, including bread brand Cerita Roti, fried chicken brand Chigo, burger chain Flip Burger, and soft cookie brand Kenangan Manis. It also experimented with a high-end café concept, Kenangan Heritage, offering pour-over coffee in spaces of 250 to 300 square meters, at prices more than double those of its regular stores. A low-cost mass-market brand, Satu Kenangan, was launched as a franchise model, featuring small stalls in residential areas with a minimum cup price of 7,000 rupiah.
With so many projects, financial and managerial resources became stretched. Tirtanata later admitted that during that period, his days were filled with back-to-back meetings, jumping from one project's financial report to the next, even replying to messages in the brief moments between sips of water. In his busiest week, he slept in the office for three consecutive nights. When his wife called to ask when he would come home, he glanced at his schedule and replied, "Probably not until next Wednesday." After hanging up, he stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, then continued reviewing spreadsheets.
In 2022, the company's net loss expanded by 70% to 452.2 billion Indonesian rupiah. Tirtanata was candid in his later reflections. In an interview, he stated that one problem for Southeast Asian startups can sometimes be having too much money. After 2022, he realized the company had spread itself too thin. When money comes too quickly, even tasks that were fifth or sixth priority can mistakenly be seen as urgent. One night before Christmas that year, he spread out the reports for over a dozen projects on his desk and, with a red pen, crossed out the majority of them. The next morning, he gathered his core team and said simply: "These three stay, the rest stop. Speak now if you disagree." No one objected.
Expansion of the high-end stores was paused, and the low-cost Satu Kenangan brand was also halted. Tirtanata acknowledged learning a valuable lesson from this experiment: low prices do not guarantee success, as consumers ultimately buy experiences and trusted brands. One thing they did correctly was launching a ready-to-drink product line in 2022, called "Kopi Kenangan Hanya Untukmu" (meaning "Just for You"), sold through convenience stores in towns and villages. By 2025, unit sales had tripled. Tirtanata explained that even if the company opens 2,600 cafés by 2030, it would still not cover Indonesia's 280 million population, so ready-to-drink products are a way to reach more people.
After cutting these extraneous projects, the numbers began to improve. Revenue reached $106 million in 2023, $119 million in 2024, and $184 million in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 45%. Net profit was $17 million, with EBITDA of $37 million. This marked the first full year of profitability after five consecutive years of losses during the pandemic. In the first quarter of 2026, sales grew another 70% year-on-year to $57 million. In a January 2026 LinkedIn post, Tirtanata wrote that a company does not have to wait until its IPO to start operating with the standards of a publicly listed company.
1,324 Stores Across Six Countries
By the end of 2025, Kopi Kenangan had opened 1,324 stores in six countries. Indonesia remains the dominant market with 1,137 stores, while Malaysia, with 158 stores, is the largest overseas market. The company entered Singapore in September 2023, the Philippines in October 2024, India and Australia in 2025, and Taipei in April 2026. About 85% of its stores are grab-and-go kiosks without seating, covering 20 to 30 square meters. These have low investment costs and fast payback periods. A cup of coffee sells for $1.30, significantly less than Starbucks' pricing in Indonesia but more than instant coffee from street vendors.
The core market operates almost entirely through company-owned stores, while the Philippines and Australia use a franchise model. The brand is known internationally as Kenangan Coffee. In Indonesia, Kopi Kenangan has the highest brand recognition. A November 2025 survey by research firm Populix found that 97% of respondents were aware of the brand, and 37% mentioned it first when asked about coffee brands. The second-place competitor, Janji Jiwa, had 87% recognition and a 7% top-of-mind rate. Starbucks, which has operated in Indonesia for over two decades, has about 595 stores, roughly half the number of Kopi Kenangan's Indonesian locations.
Competition is intensifying. Local rivals such as Janji Jiwa, Fore, and Tomoro Coffee are expanding using similar models. Fore Coffee has already listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, reporting a net profit of 90 billion rupiah in 2025, about one-third of Kopi Kenangan's profit, but with a 60% year-on-year increase in first-half profits. Malaysia's Zus Coffee plans to reach 3,000 stores by 2030 and opened its first store in Jakarta in late June, entering Kopi Kenangan's home territory. Luckin Coffee, with over 31,000 stores in China, uses Indonesian coffee beans but has not yet entered the Indonesian market.
Tirtanata is relatively relaxed about the competition. He says he does not see them as fundamental threats, because they are helping to expand the overall market. Indonesia's per capita consumption of fresh coffee is 2.7 cups, the lowest in Asia. He estimates this will rise to 4.2 cups in four years. What does concern him is the price of coffee beans. In the two years to January 2026, the price of Arabica coffee futures on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) nearly doubled. By the end of March, prices had fallen back to around $3 per pound, still over 50% higher than in January 2024. Kopi Kenangan uses 100% Indonesian coffee beans, primarily sourced from Sumatra and Java. Although the impact of international futures prices is less severe than for beans imported directly, local Indonesian prices are also rising. Tirtanata's strategy includes diversifying procurement sources, using futures contracts to lock in prices, and saving costs elsewhere, such as buying disposable cups directly from manufacturers. He does not want to pass these cost increases on to consumers.
Expansion plans for 2026 are aggressive, with approximately 550 new stores planned for the year. The company opened 178 stores in the first half and aims to open another 300 to 400 in the second half. The target is to reach 4,000 stores by 2030, with revenue of $650 million. Tirtanata says expansion will be funded by internal cash flow, with no plans to seek additional funding from investors. A report by market research firm Redseer in April 2025 estimated that Indonesia's coffee market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11%, from $6.7 billion in 2024 to $12.6 billion by 2030. During the same period, the share of coffee consumed outside the home is expected to increase from about 50% to 65-70%. Whether this growth space is sufficient for Kopi Kenangan and its competitors will depend on who can achieve the highest store density first.
The IPO is still in its early stages. Lee Jun Xian, the company's vice president of corporate finance and development, stated in a release that discussions with financial institutions are routine at this stage, and no decisions regarding the IPO have been made, including the timing, location, or valuation. According to media reports, some investors are considering selling part of their holdings at a valuation of $1.2 to $1.4 billion. The IPO valuation target is $1 billion, slightly lower than some expectations in the secondary market.
Tirtanata is 33 years old. He exercises at 5 AM, drinks 3 to 5 cups of coffee each day, and visits 40 to 50 stores every month. He once said in an interview that he misses the days of the roadside stall in 2017, when there were no investors, no financial reports, no board of directors, just three partners and a coffee machine. "Now when I wake up and open my phone, there are hundreds of messages waiting for replies. But sometimes, when I pass the Kuningan intersection and see the spot where the original stall was, now a fried noodle stand, I stop and buy a portion. Not because I'm hungry, but because I want to remember where it all started."
From a street stall without seating in Jakarta to 1,324 stores in six countries, from a $10,000 starting capital to a $1 billion valuation, Kopi Kenangan took eight years. Five of those years were spent losing money, and only one year was truly profitable. Tirtanata once said he wants to sell Indonesian coffee as a brand to more countries. Previously, Indonesian coffee beans were exported in sacks, priced by the ton. Now, they are served in cups, priced by the cup. The difference between these two approaches is what this company has been doing for the past eight years. On the day of the IPO, if all goes smoothly, Tirtanata will likely be standing in a corner, drinking a cup of palm sugar coffee—no sugar, no milk—just like the first cup he had eight years ago on the roadside in Kuningan.
Comments