This 35-year-old turned a local Indonesian coffee stall into a unicorn startup — today it brings in $100 million a year

Edward Tirtanata transformed a local Indonesian coffee stall into Kopi Kenangan, now a unicorn company with over $100 million in annual sales. Starting with a passion for coffee in college, Tirtanata and his partner James Prananto launched the business in 2017 with an initial investment of $15,000. The company quickly expanded to more than 800 locations across Southeast Asia, adopting a tech-driven, hyperlocal strategy to cater to regional tastes, which proved successful even during the pandemic.