Ethiopia's coffee waste gets a second life with Coffee Resurrect’s green tech
Only about 30% of a coffee bean's mass can be extracted into the coffee we drink, leaving a larger fraction as spent coffee grounds.
These coffee wastes, known as used coffee grounds, are the byproduct of brewing coffee and are typically discarded or composted, despite containing several highly desirable chemical components.
Coffee Resurrect, an Ethiopian startup founded in 2021, repurposes unwanted coffee grounds into sustainable, high-quality products. As Africa's first coffee biorefinery, Coffee Resurrect creates all-natural ingredients for personal care, nutraceuticals, and food products.
Ethiopia is the world's fourth-largest coffee producer and the largest in Africa. In the 2023-2024 year, Ethiopia is expected to produce 8.35 million 60-kilogram bags of coffee, continuing a trend of growth over the past three years. The East African country, the origin of the coffee plant, has a centuries-old tradition of coffee farming.
Coffee Resurrect’s sustainable innovation
Almaw Molla, CEO and Founder of Coffee Resurrect shared the company's mission to divert industrial coffee waste into “100% natural, active and multifunctional” ingredients. “The industrial wastes are urban wastes, which are the spent coffee grounds and the silver skin. The spent coffee grounds come from coffee bars, restaurants, canteens, and airports. The silver skin is a waste produced during the processing and roasting of coffee,” he said in an interview with GSW.
“Our first products are coffee oil, coffee flour, and coffee fibre. These products serve two different sectors: the coffee flour and coffee oil are used in nutraceuticals and food ingredients, while the coffee fibre and coffee oil are applicable for personal care and cosmetics,” he added.
From thesis to startup
Almaw, a trained computer scientist, created Coffee Resurrect from his Master’s thesis at the University of Milan, Italy. His inspiration came from his family's coffee exporting business and a desire to find sustainable solutions in the industry. “I have a family who exports coffee to the US and European markets. I wanted to explore sustainable niche markets and innovative solutions, which led to the creation of Coffee Resurrect,” he said.
Despite its success, the company has faced challenges, particularly in securing funding and acquiring biotechnology expertise. “It's a new kind of technology, involving the circular economy and biotechnology. Achieving high purity standards requires significant expertise,” Almaw explained.
The company consists of five team members in Ethiopia, most of whom are women with backgrounds in chemistry, biology, and pharmaceuticals. “We have a team of five here in Ethiopia, mainly women, working in the coffee sector and pharmaceutical sectors,” he added.
Prospects and partnerships
Currently in the research and development stage with small-scale production in progress, Coffee Resurrect aims to launch its products in Ethiopia by early 2025. The goal is to expand production to Kenya and South Africa through pilot projects. According to Almaw, the products will be marketed both locally and internationally, with a focus on the European and US markets for personal care ingredients.
He disclosed that the food ingredients will focus on partnerships with local communities.
“What we're trying to create is, to incorporate this with the energy and to give back to the people… Our business model is going to be 70 - 30… We signed our biggest deal to collect from the biggest South African restaurants. It has 300 branches in South Africa. If you are collecting this raw material in South Africa, the business model is going to be applied in the food sector. 70% is going to be on the commercial side. 30% of the food ingredients are going to be given back to the people, back to the farmers, to the market, the community and to the pupils” he explained.
International recognition
In its three-year existence, Coffee Resurrect has garnered international recognition. In 2021, it was named in the Entrepreneurship World Cup Top 100 (EWC). In 2023, it won the Global Startup Awards in the Best Green Tech category for East Africa and the Global Startup Awards Africa, among others.
