The man behind Coffeesmiths Collective, the group which acquired scores of speciality shops before collapsing, has returned to the coffee sector with a cryptocurrency-based trading platform.
Stefan Allesch-Taylor co-founded the Department for Coffee & Social Affairs, and looked to create a coffee shop platform with the acquisition of Filmore & union, Small Batch Coffee, Taylor St Baristas, Nordic Bakery, and Urban Tea Rooms, among others.
The group collapsed into insolvency in 2020 with liabilities of at least £20m, with most of the business liquidated.
Allesch-Taylor, also a City financier and philanthropist, has now returned to the coffee sector with Kaldi Company, which aims to get a fairer deal for small coffee growers, many of whom live in poverty.
Described as a “pioneer in combining blockchain, Web3, AI, IOT-enabled traceability”, the platform will use the crypto economy to “revolutionize the coffee value chain and alleviate poverty amongst millions of smallholder coffee farmers globally”, according to an announcement.
Kaldi has received regulatory approval for its new digital currency Kaldicoin in the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority, an off-shore jurisdiction known for low-tax economy.
Kaldi reports the $450+bn coffee market is “marred by inequalities”, with 44% of the world’s 12.5m smallholder coffee farmers, who produce 80% of the world’s coffee, living in poverty.
A fifth of these farmers are enduring extreme poverty and surviving on less than $1.90 per day, the company said.
The new platform aims to boost traceability, returns and profitability for smallholder farmers, by linking them directly with global wholesale buyers and passing on savings generated through logistic automation to the farmers.
Digital currency Kaldicoins, minted based on USD-denominated coffee sales, are awarded to farmers in addition to the USD income from coffee sales.
Only farmers can initiate the Kaldicoin minting process by selling their coffee on KaldiMarket, and they receive the largest share of the newly minted Kaldicoins, opening new opportunities to profit from their crops and enabling them to participate in the marketplace’s macro trading success across the rapidly growing green global coffee market.
Kaldi Company founder and chair, Stefan Allesch-Taylor, said: “Kaldi Company is at the forefront of harnessing blockchain technology and tokenomics to drive meaningful global financial impact for millions of the world’s poorest coffee farmers. Kaldicoin is a powerful economic participation unit and profit multiplier designed to capture the money lost in the system to an inefficient supply chain and to pass this wealth to the KaldiMarket participants, the sellers (farmers), the buyers (roasters), and all Kaldicoin holders. This regulation strengthens our commitment to delivering financial empowerment, financial inclusion, and a profitable, sustainable future to smallholder coffee farmers worldwide.”
