Fika, a graduate of the Founder Institute in Montreal, has announced that it has been accepted into the Fall 2015 cohort at New York City’s Food-X accelerator, which partners with early-stage food entrepreneurs.
“Food-X selected us to launch in New York, which is an amazing market for indie coffee shops. Food-X is helping us with providing the right mentors to help us launching in New York. We have access to the best mentors in the food space from branding to angel investment and growth hacking,” said Elyes Mrad, CEO of Fika. “Of course, we are focusing on growing our product in Montreal and Canada, we have a really scalable product and we want to offer the best experience to customers all around the world. Our vision is to create the biggest indie coffee coalition in the world.”
Fika is a mobile app focused on independent coffee shops. The app allows users to choose a coffee plan where they pay a monthly fee for one coffee a day. Fika then tells the user which eligible coffee shops are closest to their location, and the user can then grab their beverage once they arrive at the coffee shop. The loyalty plan that comes with the app also allows people to earn free coffee and discounts.
In August, Fika won the title of best Montreal Food Tech startup last month from the North American tour of 33Entrepreneurs, a France-based startup accelerator and global seed fund focusing on wine and spirits, gastronomy and travel. In October, its team will be attending Bon Appétech in San Francisco, a conference meant to connect food innovators, producers, and global brands to focus on food innovation in the industry.
“We focused on independent coffee shops because we just love it. We love the passion of each coffee shop owner and you feel it in their coffee. We noticed they were still using these paper punchcards, and they were missing a lot of opportunities to increase their sales and be a more sustainable business,” said Mrad. “We wanted to create a product that gives them the power of a coalition, while giving each coffee shop personality.”