Unknown invests in Kumasi

Lars Gierveld, co-founder of Kumasi, says: "Investing in an early stage startup in a market dominated by major players is a bold move. Unknown believes in our ability to change the status quo of the cocoa industry. We’re thrilled to have a professional investor with a global reach and emphasis on impact measurement like Unknown join the Kumasi movement!”

Unknown supports Kumasi for thinking beyond the cocoa beans in an industry that has got away for too long with exploiting farmers and dictating the market. With the excess cocoa juice, Kumasi Drinks creates a range of 100% natural, healthy and tasty drinks out of what was previously considered waste from the cocoa production process. The cocoa industry is solely interested in the seeds of the cocoa plant (cocoa beans), which are used to make chocolate. As it turns out, the juicy fruit pulp surrounding the cocoa bean is healthy and extraordinarily tasty. It doesn’t taste like cocoa or chocolate but like a kind of mix of lychee, mango and white peach.

With their fresh, novel approach in a cocoa market dominated by major players, Kumasi buys its juice with its technical partner in Ghana directly from farmers. This way, the cocoa farmers receive immediate additional income – up to 30% extra per kg – from selling the pulp and juice byproducts from their cocoa production process they would have typically thrown away.

In this transaction, Jan-Berend Möller, Robert Vodegel and Ginou van den Berg of Kennedy Van der Laan took care of the legal guidance of Kumasi. Read the press release on the website of Unknown Group.