KAHAWA ROOTS (UK) LTD

Delivering ethical, traceable Kenyan coffee direct from farm to roaster — with every kilo planting a tree.

Founder(s) name: Rupal Karar, Cetric Mululu

Industry Sector: Food & Drink

Kahawa Roots is a sustainable coffee trading company that sources premium-grade, traceable green coffee beans directly from our farm — Chwele Kahawa Roots Farm — on the fertile slopes of Mt. Elgon, Kenya. We offer a one-stop solution for green coffee supply: we grow, harvest, process, mill, and grade the beans, ensuring complete transparency and quality control throughout the supply chain. By eliminating intermediaries like auctioneers and brokers, we guarantee better prices for farmers and consistent quality for buyers.

Our primary customers are specialty coffee roasters, cafés, universities, and wholesalers across the UK committed to ethical sourcing and high-quality beans. We are also building a traceability and tree-planting platform, linking each batch of coffee to its origin and planting one tree for every kilo sold — promoting climate action alongside conscious commerce.

We are a purpose-driven business that exists to make the coffee industry more fair, transparent, and regenerative.

Our Story

The idea for Kahawa Roots started while I was pursuing my MSc in Sustainable Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Birmingham. During my course, I met my classmate — now co-founder — Cetric, who is from Kenya. In one of our many conversations, he spoke about his grandmother, a coffee farmer, and the systemic challenges she faced despite growing high-quality coffee.

We began researching the coffee supply chain and saw how broken and exploitative it was — full of middlemen, low traceability, and barely any value reaching the farmers. That was the moment we decided to build something better. We envisioned a company that offers direct sourcing, traceability, farmer empowerment, and environmental regeneration through agroforestry.

Next Phase

The next phase for Kahawa Roots is to move from pilot to growth. We aim to establish our position in the UK specialty green coffee market by securing long-term B2B clients (roasters, cafés, and universities) and scaling our export operations from Kenya.

We are also focused on strengthening our traceability and sustainability systems, particularly developing a geo-mapping platform that enables buyers to trace their coffee down to the farm level. We are also expanding our “one kilo, one tree” initiative to support climate resilience and reforestation in Kenya.

From Elevate, we hope to gain:

Strategic mentorship to refine our business model, partnerships, and go-to-market approach.
Support in supply chain optimisation and operations management, especially around UK compliance and logistics.
Expertise in building our tech-enabled traceability system.
Access to funding and investment networks to scale sustainably.
A community of like-minded entrepreneurs where we can share, learn, and grow together.

Get Involved

We are currently seeking an investment of £45,000 to support the next growth phase of Kahawa Roots. This funding will be used to build a strong foundation for our ethical and traceable green coffee export business from Kenya to the UK.

Contact Details

Email us: info@kahawaroots.com

Phone: +4407886328642

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