JAKARTA: Kopi Kenangan, one of Indonesia's fastest growing retail food and beverage (F&B) chains, has officially become a unicorn in the F&B category, the first from Southeast Asia.

       This was after recently raising US$96 million (US$1=RM4.20) in the first closing of a Series C funding, giving the company which is well-known for its great tasting coffee a valuation of more than US$1 billion by investors.

       "With the latest round of funding, we will speed up the expansion of the network across Indonesia and internationally,” said chief executive officer Edward Tirtanata in a statement today.

       Founded in 2017, it has raised over US$240 million to date.

       Kopi Kenangan has served 40 million cups of coffee in the last 12 months and is expected to serve 5.5 million cups per month in the first quarter of 2022.

       It targets a gap in the market in Indonesia between the high-priced coffee served at international coffee chains and the instant coffee sold in the country's many street stalls.

       Kopi Kenangan now joins Indonesia’s elite unicorns, including Traveloka, Tokopedia, OVO, Xendit, Bukalapak, J&T Express, OnlinePajak and Ajaib.

       GoTo Group, formed in May 2021 via a merger between ride-hailing giant Gojek and e-commerce platform Tokopedia, is the first and only decacorn in the country, with valuation above US$10 billion. - Bernama