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No beans? No problem: This startup makes coffee out of yeast and fungi

Published: 28 Jun. 2025, 07:00 Updated: 29 Jun. 2025, 23:48

SEO JI-EUN
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Prefer CEO Jake Berber speaks during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily at the NextRise 2025 startup fair held at COEX in southern Seoul on Friday. [ASEAN-KOREA CENTRE]

How will your coffee habit survive climate change? One Singaporean startup thinks it has the answer — without a single bean.

At NextRise 2025, Korea's largest startup fair, Prefer co-founder and CEO Jake Berber unveiled a vision for the future of coffee: a fermentation-based product designed to cut carbon emissions and costs.

As the grand prize winner of last year’s ASEAN-Korea Startup Innovation Week, hosted by the ASEAN-Korea Centre, Prefer has become one of Southeast Asia’s most talked-about food-tech players. Now, it is setting its sights on Korea.

“I’m here looking to meet the right partner and continue conversations with partners we’ve been speaking with,” Berber told the Korea JoongAng Daily in an interview at COEX on Friday. “These partners could be large FMCGs [fast-moving consumer goods] that have their own canned or instant coffee brands, where we could, for example, have a joint venture with them or build a factory together, or even just license our IP [intellectual property] to them.”

Founded in 2022, Prefer grew out of Berber's deep interest in food science and biotechnology. Originally from Texas, he studied neuroscience in Los Angeles, worked for a biotech startup in Tel Aviv and eventually moved to Singapore, where his career took a decisive turn toward food tech.

“I came across the problem that coffee prices are really skyrocketing and land suitable to grow coffee is diminishing due to change ... and at the same time, there was an increase in demand coming for the coffee industry,” Berber said. “So I just started to think — what are some other ways that we can enjoy the same experience of coffee, but without relying on the crop that is now under threat?”

Berber and his co-founder began experimenting with fermentation to mimic the taste of coffee using noncoffee ingredients like rice and soy. The resulting extract, now proprietary and patented, uses specific microbes, yeast, fungi and enzymes to convert amino acids into compounds that resemble traditional coffee flavor.

Korea, with one of the highest densities of Starbucks stores globally and a booming cafe culture, might seem like a tough market to crack. But Berber sees that as an opportunity as akin to “picks and shovels” — not launching a brand, but providing the technology behind many brands. Pilot discussions with Korean firms are already underway.

“We’re not here to launch another coffee brand,” he said. “We frame it as a coffee extender — so that you blend it in with your coffee, rather than creating a whole new product line.”

Prefer CEO Jake Berber, left, poses with ASEAN-Korea Centre Secretary General Kim Jae-shin during the NextRise 2025 startup fair at COEX in Seoul. [ASEAN-KOREA CENTRE]

Berber says his brand is the “most affordable” beanless product on the market, targeting instant coffee drinkers, and is priced between Nestlé’s Nescafé and Starbucks’ ready-to-drink options.

“There's been a big trend of discount coffee [in Korea],” he said. “If we can help to decrease the costs even more for our partners, then that allows them to have an even bigger competitive edge.”

Prefer completed a $2 million seed investment, backed in part by Korean firm Sopoong Ventures, last year, and is preparing to launch a new fund-raising round.

“Our mission is to future-proof food and beverage — full stop,” Berber said.

Prefer CEO Jake Berber holds the company’s first ready-to-drink iced oat latte, recently launched in Singapore, during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily in Seoul on Friday. [ASEAN-KOREA CENTRE]

For now, Berber remains focused on building the right relationships in Seoul. If the pitch goes well, Prefer could soon become the invisible ingredient behind Korea’s next wave of coffee innovation.

BY SEO JI-EUN [[email protected]]