Challenge
The global coffee trade has long been plagued by inefficiencies and a lack of transparency. Traditionally, the industry has relied on outdated methods such as Excel spreadsheets, email, and phone calls to manage transactions. This has made supply chain traceability a significant challenge and has hindered direct relationships between coffee growers and roasters.
Algrano recognized the need to modernise the coffee trade. They aimed to provide roasters with direct access to coffee growers and to offer producers a transparent path to market. However, a major obstacle was the financial liquidity gap. Many roasters lacked the funds to pay upfront for large quantities of coffee, creating delays and uncertainties in payments to growers. Roasters needed a way to secure their coffee supplies without the heavy financial burden of paying for a year’s worth of coffee upfront.
Solution
To address this challenge, Algrano partnered with finmid to embed financing solutions directly into their platform. This collaboration has enabled Algrano to offer flexible payment terms to roasters while ensuring that growers receive timely payments. finmid’s advanced technology and adaptable financing options have seamlessly integrated with Algrano’s business model, supporting their growth.
By leveraging finmid's infrastructure, Algrano has implemented a solution that helps roasters manage their coffee orders better. Algrano covers the cost of large orders upfront, enabling roasters to withdraw smaller amounts of beans as needed. This means roasters can access the coffee they require without the financial strain of an upfront payment for the entire bulk order. Instead, they have 30 days to pay for each withdrawal. This solution provides roasters with the financial flexibility to manage their cash flow effectively, ensuring they can maintain a steady supply of coffee.
“finmid’s super tech-driven, user-first approach, provided us with a seamless experience. Their efficiency, responsiveness, and exceptional customer support have been crucial in enabling our rapid expansion while ensuring our growers are paid promptly and our roasters can maintain smooth cash flow.”
Max Schertel, co-founder of finmid, highlights: “At finmid, we believe in the power of financial technology to drive industry change. Our partnership with Algrano enables us to provide essential liquidity solutions, ensuring that both growers and roasters can thrive in a competitive market.”
Outlook
While Algrano is still a relatively small player in the vast coffee industry, its growth is compounding rapidly, as are its financing needs. With finmid's support, Algrano is prepared to meet future challenges head-on. The flexibility and scalability of finmid's solutions ensure that Algrano can continue to grow and innovate within the industry.
Nine years ago, Algrano started building the first tech and service-providing company in the coffee importing industry. They built a gateway to a common infrastructure and an open environment that shares information freely, with producers and roasters alike.
Today, Algrano runs the most diverse and decentralised coffee sourcing model in the world, with a wide range of empowered roasters and a huge impact on hundreds of producers – selling coffee from Latin America, Africa and Asia to roasters in Europe and the US.
That model allows producers to focus on the key components of their business: Selling and sourcing great coffee and building long-term relationships with business partners. Algrano takes care of all the background work, from matchmaking, to export, shipping, import, storage and financing, centralised on an online marketplace. Learn more: algrano.com.
finmid is the embedded lending infrastructure powering platform growth. With its API, finmid enables platforms to launch tailored financing products for their business customers at scale. Across industries, borders, and business models, finmid drives revenue, improves retention, and fuels core business growth. finmid is trusted by Europe’s most ambitious platforms, including Wolt, Delivery Hero, Guesty, and safi. Learn more at finmid.com.
