Food tech startup Compound Foods has launched an ingredient platform designed to provide global food brands with beanless alternatives to traditional coffee and cocoa. The offering targets supply chain vulnerabilities driven by climate change, extreme price volatility, and rising production costs.
Built for business-to-business use, Compound’s platform delivers coffee and cocoa substitutes that match the sensory and functional attributes of conventional beans. The system uses underutilised inputs like seeds and fibres, applying fermentation and roasting to replicate flavour and performance. It also integrates easily into existing manufacturing processes, avoiding costly reformulations.
The platform leverages domestic sourcing, upcycled agricultural byproducts, and lower-emission processes, positioning itself as a more sustainable and geopolitically stable option for commodity buyers. It supports customisation to meet nutritional or labelling requirements and has shown strong consumer acceptance in blind tests.
Originally developed for coffee, the platform was expanded to cocoa following 2024’s supply crisis. Compound claims its beanless alternatives offer a more predictable cost structure while reducing water use and carbon emissions.
The company has secured over $10 million in investment from firms including Lowercarbon Capital, Ulu Ventures, and FoodLabs, signalling strong investor confidence in the future of synthetic commodity ingredients.