ViaNexta Co-Founders Matt Nam (second from left) and Nickisha Bailey (sixth from left) at a farm go to in Colombia. All pictures courtesy of ViaNexta.

The founders of Philadelphia’s Win Win Espresso have launched digital provide chain platform known as ViaNexta designed to attach espresso farmers within the African diaspora on to espresso consumers.

Developed by Win Win Espresso co-founders Nikisha Bailey and Matt Nam, the digital inexperienced and roasted espresso buying platform goals to be quicker, extra handy and cheaper for consumers, with the intention to assist Black and brown farmers safe higher costs and extra secure incomes.

At present in a pilot part that launched in January, the platform (previously referred to as CoffeePLUG) engages roughly 600 farmers, every of whom have been vetted for high quality assurance. There are presently 10 consumers signed onto the platform, together with roasters, distributors and retailers.

Win Win and ViaNexta Co-Founder Nikisha Bailey.

“We initially began with a smaller group of farmers and consumers to fine-tune our processes, and we have now steadily scaled as much as embody a bigger community of each,” Matt Nam instructed Every day Espresso Information. “We leveraged our intensive community of partnerships with agricultural cooperatives, NGOs, and native governments throughout varied nations. These relationships allowed us to have interaction with numerous farmers who had been desirous to entry higher markets and extra clear buying and selling practices.”

The pricing mannequin for coffees bought on the ViaNexta platform is dynamic, bearing in mind the C-market worth as a baseline reference. Platform representatives work with farmers and consumers to ascertain premiums for larger high quality in addition to sustainability certifications.

“The precise proportion above the C-market worth can range primarily based on these elements, guaranteeing honest compensation for farmers,” stated Nam.

ViaNexta collects a transaction price from consumers starting from 2-9% relying on quantity. Extra income for ViaNexta comes via value-added providers resembling high quality assurance, logistics coordination and financing options.

“There aren’t any direct prices for farmers to hitch the community,” stated Nam. “Our objective is to scale back obstacles to market entry and improve their profitability.”

Improvement of the platform began in the course of the pandemic, as Bailey and Nam steered Win Win Espresso right into a roasting operation following the shutdown of the model’s brick-and-mortar cafe. Quick challenges in sourcing high quality inexperienced espresso impressed the duo to discover options. 

Stated Nikisha Bailey, “We had been met with so many challenges and knew that there needed to be a greater strategy to streamline the provision chain and take higher care of the producer on the opposite facet.”

Nam, a grandchild of Jamaican farmers whose work previous to Win Win was growing software program for medical and healthcare functions, started working with agriculture scientists and engineers from Ghana and the College of Pennsylvania.

Collectively they constructed a platform for importers, roasters, cafes, or anybody committing to bulk purchases of inexperienced or roasted espresso in common intervals. Value negotiations happen on-line, and are aided by proprietary AI-assisted algorithms that monitor commodities costs in actual time, handle danger scores and contribute to yield prediction.

Via direct communications, producers and consumers can share pictures, names and different particulars for traceability, advertising or their very own relationships. The platform makes use of PayPal to facilitate funds to farmers native foreign money.

“A good portion of Win Win’s espresso is now sourced via ViaNexta,” stated Bailey. “This permits us to take care of transparency and traceability whereas supporting the farmers in our community.”

The founders instructed DCN that the ViaNexta pilot will proceed to develop to further areas, in addition to to further commodities, primarily based on its success in espresso. Extra superior applied sciences will even proceed to be integrated, resembling AI-driven analytics and blockchain for enhanced traceability. A phased transition of this system from pilot to full launch is projected for early 2025.

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