Middle East Technology Excellence Award 2022 for Startup - Food & Beverage was presented to COFE App

The platform won the award for startup in the F&B sector joining the league of past winners such as Du, Amazon (MENA), the Entertainer, & BLOOVO to become one of the most innovative companies in the Middle East.

COFE, the region’s most loved online coffee marketplace, recently bagged a win in the Startup - Food & Beverage category at the Middle East Technology Excellence Awards 2022. The platform that has become the go-to for coffee lovers around the region has recently upped its tech innovation to push for consumer delight guided by convenience. 

Operating in a market that is estimated to be over US$100b, it is surprising to see that there aren’t any robust platforms out there serving this ever-growing audience, leaving space for a tech player to come in and digitise this space with online solutions for both coffee players and coffee lovers. And that is exactly what COFE did! The startup currently services users in Kuwait, UAE, KSA, and Egypt, and is expected to get aggressive with their growth strategy, not only expanding to include other MENA countries but also going international. 

Commenting on the win, COFE Founder & CEO said, “This award is testament to the work our tech and product teams have been putting in to create a platform that anticipates the users' needs based on our daily habits. We are not reinventing the wheel here, just realigning it to match more with our technology led lifestyles. The coffee culture has been a strong part of our tradition for centuries, we are just updating the methods of how COFE lovers can get to it. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at COFE for all the efforts and innovativeness they have poured into this platform.”

COFE App allows users to order, customise, and pay for their cuppa through their phones. The users can choose from any one of the multiple service fulfilment methods like counter pickup, curb-side pickup, quick delivery, on-demand delivery, to name a few. More recently, the app also launched voice-command ordering wherein Apple users can reorder through Siri, and they are all set to launch the same on Amazon’s Alexa. In the coming months, users will also be able to take advantage of a monthly subscription and a brand new COFE Store that makes brewing at home simple and effective with beans, machines, capsules, coffee apparatus, and accessories available on the tip of their fingers. 

Connecting users to both international franchises as well as local specialty coffee houses and roasteries, COFE offers a highly customisable loyalty infrastructure, with the reward programme increasing customer loyalty whilst also ensuring that well-performing brands reap the benefits of their effort.

Doubling their efforts to bring recognition to the Saudi Coffee Industry, the brand is also collaborating with coffee farmers, leading them directly to end users. Foraying into the e-commerce sector, the platform has also launched its own brand of Saudi Premium Black Coffee Beans called Pur Gahwa. The highly successful launch campaign led to sold-out stocks in 48 hours of its launch. 

The company works with major market players to ensure superior service, whether it is servicing their users with the best cup of coffee or integrating with delivery apps such as Talabat, Careem, and Hunger station.

Moreover, COFE provides a customised business model that allows growth for vendors through a user subscription model. Therefore, rather than paying a continuous commission percentage on every order, vendors only pay a flat price per user the first time they place their first order with the brand. If they are a returning customer, the brand takes full revenue from the order with no deductions.

Partner brands are also being supported by COFE through its online marketing tool COFElytics. This feature allows brands to learn more about their customers’ behaviour, giving them the opportunity to create effective campaigns on the platform to push for more business. They also receive monthly reach and engagement by sending them monthly reports.

All of these innovations and the growth potential of COFE are what led them to be the recipients of the prestigious Middle East Technology Excellence Awards 2022. 

The Middle East Technology Excellence Awards is presented by Asian Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2023 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding contributions in pursuit of technological innovation, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].