Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem are you solving?
Ciao Coffee: Ciao Coffee has developed a more sustainable, healthier, and more functional coffee. The coffee is made without coffee beans and instead uses high-quality European grain. Ciao Coffee launched with an iced coffee and will launch a black instant coffee in summer 2025. Ciao Coffee pursues an omnichannel strategy and distributes its products both in retail (Rewe, Edeka, Billa) and online.
Worldwide coffee consumption faces major challenges:
- Rainforest clearing: Coffee cultivation contributes massively to deforestation. Already 20 percent of the Brazilian rainforest has been destroyed – an area five times the size of Germany.
- Water consumption: Around 20,000 liters of water are needed for one kilogram of coffee. In many cultivation regions, this leads to water scarcity and environmental damage.
- Carbon footprint: While consumption occurs mainly in Europe and North America, beans come from South America, Africa, or Asia – with correspondingly long transport routes.
- Loss of cultivation areas due to climate change: We are already experiencing the effects of rising demand and declining yields in coffee cultivation – coffee prices are skyrocketing.
Ciao Coffee solves these problems through a more sustainable alternative with less sugar, no coffee acid, and additional nutrients such as B-complex vitamins and iron.
Munich Startup: But that already exists!
Ciao Coffee: No, Ciao Coffee is Germany’s first and only iced coffee without coffee beans. There are certainly caffeine-free alternatives or malt coffee, but nothing comparable – an iced coffee with full flavor that is more sustainable and healthier. Moreover, in addition to caffeine, Ciao Coffee offers an additional vitamin boost that supports the functionality of the caffeine.
Founders have startup experience
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Ciao Coffee: Ciao Coffee was founded in early 2024 by former executives from Yfood. The founding team has years of experience building food & beverage startups and scaling them. The team is very well networked in the industry and covers a broad spectrum of expertise. Since the founding team itself consists of passionate coffee lovers and has intensively addressed the challenges of the coffee industry, it decided to develop an alternative to conventional coffee.
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Ciao Coffee: These included:
- Production & scaling: Developing a bean-free coffee based on European ingredients while still achieving authentic flavor was technically demanding. From the start, we had to ensure scalability of sourcing and the production process.
- Market entry & listings: Convincing retail to stock a completely new product was challenging. Nevertheless, Ciao is already present in over 250 stores.
- Financing & growth: After pre-seed financing in 2024, Ciao is planning another financing round in 2025 to drive expansion.
International expansion & diverse product range
Munich Startup: Where do you want to stand in one year, where in five years?
Ciao Coffee: In one year (2026):
- Establishment with the largest retail chains in the DACH region
- Further development of the product portfolio (for example, filter coffee) and new flavors
- Market leader for beanless coffee in Germany
- Building brand awareness through increasingly wider distribution, as well as through brand & performance marketing
In five years (2030):
- Expansion into new distribution channels (gastronomy, B2B, OOH)
- International expansion into the largest European coffee markets
- Offering the complete coffee spectrum including the “coffee bean” (coffee bean extrudate) that can be processed in conventional coffee machines
Munich Startup: How have you experienced the startup location of Munich so far?
Ciao Coffee: Munich is a great location for us. The feedback from people here was fantastic from the start – both from customers and from the startup scene. The city offers a strong network for founders, especially in the food sector, and direct access to major retail chains like Rewe and Edeka has helped us a lot.
Munich Startup: Outsource or do it yourself?
Ciao Coffee: Ciao Coffee pursues a mixed strategy:
- Product development is in-house: The development know-how is internal – the recipe is secret and individual components are supplied as a black box to contract manufacturers.
- Filling & logistics are outsourced to benefit from economies of scale and grow flexibly without major capital-intensive investments.
- Marketing & sales are managed internally but currently implemented with external partners. In the long term, resources will be increasingly brought in-house.
