Koppie Emerges from Stealth with Pulse-Powered Coffee Alternative and Strategic Backing

Courtesy: Koppie

As climate volatility, land scarcity and supply shocks continue to jolt the global coffee trade, a Belgian startup is taking a radical yet practical step to futureproof one of the world’s most cherished rituals. Koppie, founded by former Alpro marketing lead Daan Raemdonck and bioscience engineer Dr. Pascal Mertens, has quietly been building what it believes could be the first true bean-free coffee replacement that brews, grinds, and drinks like the real thing—without relying on coffee plants at all.

This week, the startup emerged from stealth with an undisclosed but “significant” pre-seed round led by Nucleus Capital, with participation from Mudcake, Rockstart, and several angel investors active in foodtech and climate innovation. The funds will help Koppie scale its manufacturing from kilos to tons, prepare for pilot market tests, and continue refining its core technology—a patent-pending fermentation and roasting process that transforms pulses like chickpeas into what it calls the “Koppie bean.”

The company is targeting a 2026 commercial launch, aiming first at B2B channels like roasters and ready-to-drink manufacturers.

From Pulse to Pour-Over: A Local Bean for a Global Ritual

The idea behind Koppie was born of both personal passion and systemic concern. “We love coffee. But we also saw the signs: rising prices, erratic yields, growing pressure on farmers, and worsening climate impacts,” says Raemdonck. “We didn’t want to replicate coffee flavor in a lab or launch another caffeine-free beverage. We wanted to build something the industry could actually use—something roastable, grindable, brewable.”

After founding the company in 2022, Raemdonck and Mertens screened a wide range of base ingredients, prioritizing sustainability, allergen safety, local availability, and cost. They landed on pulses, particularly chickpeas and yellow peas, which offered the right balance of functional versatility and environmental performance. The challenge: making them taste like coffee without bitterness or “off-notes.” The answer: a proprietary fermentation step that chemically transforms the beans before roasting, unlocking the roasted and aromatic profile coffee lovers expect.

The result is a single-ingredient “bean” that integrates seamlessly into existing coffee infrastructure. Q Graders—professional coffee sommeliers—have rated the latest prototype at 70/100, on par with many commercial-grade Arabicas.

Why Now: Supply Chain Breakdown Meets Consumer Inertia

Koppie’s emergence comes as the coffee supply chain teeters on instability. Arabica, the preferred species for quality coffee, is grown in climate-sensitive highlands with weak genetic diversity. A recent analysis warned that by 2050, the land suitable for growing it could shrink by 50%. In parallel, global demand is climbing 2% per year, driven by expanding middle classes in China, India, and Southeast Asia.

“The market is facing a slow-moving but inevitable mismatch between supply and demand,” says Raemdonck. “And yet, consumer behavior hasn’t caught up. Most people still take their daily brew for granted.”

That disconnect led Koppie to pursue a B2B-first strategy, working directly with roasters and product developers. “Convincing consumers to switch based on climate data is hard. But if your favorite café quietly blends in 30% Koppie, and it still tastes great? That’s how habits begin to shift.”

Not a Replacement—A Pressure Valve

Unlike some alt-coffee startups positioning themselves as future replacements, Koppie is deliberately collaborative. The team is working on hybrid blends where up to 50% of the roast is substituted with Koppie beans, reducing costs and emissions without altering sensory experience.

“We’re not anti-coffee. We’re pro-resilience,” says Raemdonck. “Coffee as we know it is under threat. If we want to protect it—and the people who depend on it—we need scalable, flexible solutions.”

That includes custom blends tailored by roast level, acidity, or even caffeine content. Because Koppie’s beans are naturally caffeine-free, they can unlock cost savings for decaf producers while reducing the need for chemical extraction.

As one investor, Erik Byrenius of Mudcake, put it: “Koppie combines excellent taste, brewing ritual, and versatility in one ingredient. With global supply under growing pressure, this kind of approach is both timely and highly scalable.”

©️ Koppie

Tech Under the Hood: Fermentation Meets Flexibility

At the heart of Koppie’s innovation is its fermentation-based transformation process, which is designed to be capex-light and adaptable across geographies. While the microbial strains remain confidential, Mertens says the company’s strength lies in how those strains interact, the conditions in which they work, and the sequence of transformations they undergo before roasting.

This also gives Koppie geographic flexibility. “If we launch in a region where lentils or other pulses are more common than chickpeas, we can adapt,” Mertens notes. “The tech does the heavy lifting.”

Manufacturing will lean on existing fermentation and roasting infrastructure, minimizing startup costs and speeding up scale. By late 2025, the team hopes to be running one or two in-market pilots with commercial partners in Europe.

A Fairer, More Stable Coffee Future?

Critics of beanless coffee often raise concerns about its potential impact on smallholder farmers, whose livelihoods depend on coffee cultivation. Raemdonck acknowledges the complexity, but is clear-eyed about the current reality.

“Even at record prices, most farmers aren’t benefitting,” he says, citing a 2021 Columbia University study showing only two of the top ten producing countries pay farmers above the poverty line. “This isn’t a future issue—it’s a now issue. And the coming supply-demand imbalance means we’ll need all the solutions we can get.”

The startup also sees its role as additive, not competitive. “There will still be demand for origin-based, specialty coffee. But for the mass market? We need to reduce pressure, add stability, and give the industry room to breathe.”

What Comes Next

Over the next 12 months, Koppie will focus on scaling production, validating its fermentation tech at larger volumes, and building early go-to-market partnerships. The first pilot tests are expected in mid-to-late 2025, with a commercial-scale launch slated for Q1 2026.

For now, the team remains pulse-agnostic and brand-agnostic, focused on integration rather than disruption. But if consumer interest builds, a branded play could eventually follow.

“People will always love their morning ritual,” says Raemdonck. “We’re just making sure that ritual still exists in ten or twenty years—delicious, affordable, and rooted in resilience.”