iFinca | Coffee Supply Chain Solution

Taking coffee's popularity at face value, one could be led to believe that all actors of the supply chain enjoy handsome margins. However, the reality is quite different, especially for coffee farmers; speculation runs rife in the industry and with cost of production well over the actual price of coffee, there's a real risk of farmer's quitting coffee plantations and selling off their farms.

For our client, Alexander Barrett, the lack of transparency and traceability in the coffee supply chain was the root cause of this predicament and he was determined to redress the balance by utilizing modern technology.

Challenge - Building Transparency, Traceability & Efficiency Across Coffee Supply Chain

Alexander Barrett wanted to build a transparency-driven digital platform that would deliver more value to coffee farmers and provide roasters, cafes and consumers complete traceability to the farmgate price.‟

‟If we’re going to make sure farmers get what they need to produce coffee sustainably, we need to figure out how to better distribute value.”

Alexander Barrett

CEO of iFinca

Apart from transparency and traceability, the platform would also address the following areas:

Eliminate unfair farming and trading practices across the coffee supply chain that lead to poor quality coffee and exploitation of farmers.

Reduce the manual paper-work across different stages of the coffee supply chain.

Reduce the order processing time particularly where different time zones are involved.

Enable offline data sync for mobile apps to make up for lack of internet connectivity in and around coffee plants.

Deliver ease of work through an interactive admin panel displaying all the key information.

Provide farm to fork traceability to coffee consumers through a simple QR code scan at point of sale.

The Search For the Perfect Blockchain-Based Technology Team Begins

To develop such a platform, Alexander Barrett and his Ifinca team needed the assistance of a technology team experienced in building blockchain-based solutions for supply chain management. A simple search for the same on Clutch brought Alexander Barrett in contact with Debut InfoTech.

During the initial interaction, we shared references of our previous work in the blockchain segment along with techno commercial proposals outlining the scope of the project and our expertise to meet its requirements.

However, the vetting stage was no walk in the park. We learnt that beside us, there were two more technology firms in contention; one of which was a prominent US-based company.

In the end, Debut Infotech's convincing portfolio in blockchain, sound technology consultation, impressive business proposal and budget-friendly pricing proved enough to bag the project. In the coming days, our team left no stone unturned to meet the client's platform requirement right down to the last details and deliver a solution worthy of every possible technology innovation accolade.

Ifinca: From POC to Initial Seed Funding by Boston Coffee House & Beyond

The Ifinca project got underway as a proof of concept with a 4 months timeline at a fixed pricing. As soon as this POC was launched, the project received $2 million seed funding from Boston Coffee House & Crazy Mocha.

But this was just a sign of things to come. Building on that strong foundation laid with the POC, we assigned 8 seasoned blockchain developers for the full-scale development of the project, whose timeline would stretch a full 1 year.

Some of the key attributes of the platform are mentioned below:

Value Delivered

Built as a mobile-first, blockchain based solution.

Designed for all actors in the coffee supply chain, including the farmers.

Designed as a closed, invite-only platform.

Offers multilingual Functionality

Offers multi-currency Support

Enabled with online payment functionality

IOT-sensor based weighing system to record accurate readings of coffee sacks.

All updates at a glance through a single dashboard.

Uses Hyperledger Fabric to store transactions in a distributed ledger, which can't be altered by any actor in the supply chain.

Result: Awards Galore, Series Funding & Rapid Traction

Our team delivered the full-fledged solution in 2019, well within the set timeline and at an affordable budget. Soon after its launch in 2019, iFinca was awarded the 2019 Best New Product Award in Technology at that year’s Speciality Coffee Association Expo. iFinca has also successfully completed Series A, B, and C rounds of funding.

In a short span of time, Finca’s user base includes as many as 38 exporters, 14 importers, 26 roasters, and 19 cafes, and 9430 individual farmers and 13 cooperatives across popular coffee growing countries like Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti and Dominican Republic.

Ifinca

Exporters

Importers

Roasters

Exporters

9430

Individual Farmers

Cooperatives

Used by World-Renowned Brands To Fairly Source & Deliver Quality Coffee To Consumers

Starbucks

Costa Coffee

Tim Hortons

Have a Similar Problem Statement? We Can Help

Working with Ifinca team offered us a complete deep-dive into global coffee supply chains and their challenges. We soon realized that the challenges we were working on weren't unique to the coffee industry and could be seen at play across various other segments of the Agri-Food Supply Chain such as tea, cocoa, quinoa, hibiscus, cotton, ginger, lychees to name a few.

We wanted to bring our technology know-how and business expertise acquired in building Ifinca to other similar markets. This is what led to the inception of Cropchain - a white label, blockchain based solution built to enable ethical trade practices across food, beverages and FMCG goods supply chains.

Cropchain is your multi-niche, Agri supply chain solution that comprises all the key benefits of a decentralized system viz. transparency, traceability, record immutability and efficiency all at an affordable pricing. With most of the groundwork in place, the solution can be deployed in as little as 6-8 weeks time, giving you incredible speed to market. For more details, reach out to our team of business and technology consultants.

Transform Your Agri-Food Supply Chain Using Our Market-Ready Solution

A Mobile-First Blockchain Based Solution For Coffee Supply Chain