In this month's 'Start-up spotlight,' where we highlight emerging and early-stage companies driving innovation in the coffee, vending and water sectors, we speak to Kaffe Bueno, a company focused on upcycling coffee by-products. Using a cutting-edge bioscience approach, the company transforms spent coffee grounds into high-value ingredients for industries ranging from personal care to nutraceuticals. Co-founder Alejandro Franco tells us more.

Kaffe Bueno is a pioneer in upcycling coffee by-products. Can you share how your bioscience approach unlocks the full potential of coffee waste?

At Kaffe Bueno, we see coffee grounds not as waste but as a resource packed with untapped compounds. Through our biorefinery and proprietary processes, we extract high-value bioactive ingredients from spent coffee grounds, transforming them into functional ingredients for personal care, nutraceuticals and beyond. Our approach is rooted in green chemistry and biotechnology, designed to unlock coffee’s full circular potential.

How has Kaffe Bueno evolved since you launched?

It has evolved in many ways and continues to do so with every learning in our journey. We once thought we could vertically integrate the whole supply chain by owning a café which would serve as our source of raw material (spent coffee grounds).

We soon realised it would take thousands of cafés to scale it up the the scale we envision. Since then, we focus more on partnerships. We do what we do best while leveraging the expertise of our partners across the value chain.

You previously mentioned that only 1% of the coffee bean’s potential is used when brewing a cup of coffee. How does your biorefinery in Copenhagen ensure the remaining 99% is effectively utilised?

Our biorefinery is designed to separate, through green processes, and valorise every key component of spent coffee grounds – from lipids and proteins to polyphenols and dietary fibres. Each fraction becomes a value-adding ingredient for specific applications, ensuring that nothing is wasted and that coffee’s full value is returned (maximised) to the economy.

The applications of your by-products are wide-ranging, from personal care and animal health to the agrochemical industries. What challenges have you faced in valorising waste for these diverse applications?

One key challenge has been aligning regulatory and quality standards across very different industries, each with unique demands. We’ve overcome this by investing early in R&D and regulatory validation, building a strong scientific foundation for each ingredient. Close collaboration with partners ensures our upcycled ingredients meet both performance and compliance needs across sectors.

Upcycling is seen as a solution to the food waste crisis. From your experience, what are the main technical and regulatory hurdles here, and how do you navigate them?

The main hurdles are proving consistent quality and safety of ingredients derived from waste, and navigating different regulatory frameworks across industries and geographies.

For example, the Novel Food legislation in EU is the antithesis of food innovation. You also have other market-specific certifications or standards required by the market rather than the law, halal or kosher, for example.

Everything is navigable, as long as you make yourself and your team aware of both the requirements from the market or governments before you decide to standardise any internal process. Being flexible in your how is what enables your what to align with your why.

How does Kaffe Bueno balance the clean label revolution’s demands with maintaining quality, efficacy and profitability for your clients and partners?

One must become aware and understand what are the barriers, limitations, challenges and opportunities presented by the market and legislation. On the other side, you must understand your raw material, capabilities (technology, expertise, knowledge, or lack of, etc) to subsequently connect the dots to solve the problem.

What potential do you see for coffee by-products in this space, and how do you envision your products impacting both the nutrition and sustainability landscapes?

Coffee by-products hold immense potential to replace synthetic and unsustainable ingredients in personal care, food and beyond. As a naturally rich source of health-promoting compounds they can address growing demands for natural, functional and sustainable solutions. Our goal is to set a new standard for upcycled ingredients that contribute to human and planetary health.

Compounds within coffee have clinically proven potential to prevent and treat a long list of conditions and diseases. The science, although abundant, still much of it is in its infancy. We were lucky to have been able to spot the opportunity before most, and we believe we can change how the world perceives and utilises coffee – the plant, not the drink.

Have you seen any other exciting examples of companies utilising coffee by-products?

Yes, there are a few companies using coffee grounds for biofuels, textiles and even construction materials. It’s exciting to see this growing ecosystem, but what sets us apart is our focus on high-value, health-promoting ingredients through a biotech lens.

What advice would you give to other companies looking to implement sustainable practices in their operations?

Use common sense. Ask simple questions and answer them honestly. Measure wisely. Focus. What are you using in your operations today that could be avoided or reduced? If it can’t be avoided or reduced, how confident are you that it is sustainable? What gives you that confidence?

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. So investing in a Life Cycle Assessment to map out your emissions will be enlightening for any company. It will also tell you where to focus your efforts.

What are Kaffe Bueno’s goals for the coming year?

Our focus is on scaling our biorefinery’s capacity and quality. On the other hand, we have exciting products in the pipeline for existing and new industries and markets.