Prefer

Prefer is a Singapore-based food technology company that uses fermentation to recreate flavours and ingredients threatened by climate change, starting with coffee and cocoa. Its process ferments plant-based inputs and food byproducts with food-grade micro-organisms to create flavour precursors, roasts them to induce Maillard reaction compounds, and then processes the output into formats suited to food manufacturing applications. The flagship product, PreferRoast™, was launched in 2024 as a coffee extender made from rice and chickpea and is offered in soluble and roasted-and-ground formats, with customisable caffeine levels (decaf, regular or double) and a nutty, chocolatey, malty flavour profile; the company states it can be blended up to 40% with coffee without changing flavour. PreferChoc™, a cocoa extender, is under development.

Alongside business-to-business ingredients, Prefer sells consumer products including ready-to-drink canned and bottled coffees (iced oat latte, iced black, iced white), described as low or zero sugar and caffeinated, sold online and at cafés and other locations across Singapore. Earlier coverage described the original product as a caffeine-free beanless brew made from stale bakery bread, soybean pulp from tofu production and spent barley grains from breweries, combined in roughly equal amounts, fermented for 24 hours and roasted, with caffeine added from tea leaves for caffeinated versions; formats then included a brewable powder, bottled cold brew and bottled latte.

The company positions its products on cost and carbon: it reports a life cycle assessment finding PreferRoast™ is 8.8x less carbon-intensive than traditional coffee cultivation, and press coverage of its 2025-era funding cites up to 85% lower emissions and 50% lower costs than traditional Arabica.

Founding story

Co-founder DJ (Ding Jie) Tan had spent several years working in the food industry with Singapore chefs, creating new flavours through fermentation. In 2022 he met Jake Berber, a neuroscientist turned entrepreneur, at a local startup accelerator in Singapore; both were coffee lovers and joined forces to create a beanless coffee drink. They spent months testing ingredients — including roasted chicory root and ground date seeds, which fell short — before arriving, after several hundred mixes and methods, at a combination of stale bakery bread, soybean pulp from tofu making and spent brewery barley grains, fermented for 24 hours and roasted.

Business model

Prefer supplies ingredients to FMCG/CPG brands, ingredient manufacturers, flavour houses, foodservice chains, private-label retailers and distributors, and also licenses its flavour IP to partners for local manufacturing and distribution. It additionally sells finished consumer products (ready-to-drink coffees) online, at retail/foodservice locations and via corporate orders, and offers co-manufacturing and co-branded product collaborations. Product development is customisable (caffeine level and flavour profile) subject to minimum order quantities.

Revenue comes from sales of ingredient products (soluble and roasted-and-ground coffee extenders, cocoa powders), sales of branded ready-to-drink consumer products online and through retail/foodservice/corporate pantry channels, and licensing of its flavour intellectual property to international partners.

Traction

PreferRoast™ launched in 2024 and is on menus at various locations across Singapore, with ready-to-drink cans stocked in corporate pantries in Singapore through global facilities and services management partners and products sold online. Commercial partnerships include a co-branded ice cream with Melvados available at all Melvados outlets and online, an IP licensing partnership with The Coffee Ferm in Australia and New Zealand, a partnership with Ajinomoto Co. (Thailand) Ltd, and expansion into the Philippines with Pick Up Coffee, which is also an investor. The company reported an oversubscribed $4.2 million round bringing total equity raised to $6.2 million.

Latest developments

Prefer announced an oversubscribed $4.2 million funding round backed by At One Ventures, Chancery Hill Capital and Forge Ventures, coinciding with the launch of new soluble coffee and cocoa powders; At One Ventures partner Helen Lin joined the board. The company is expanding production through toll manufacturers, advancing R&D in cocoa flavours (PreferChoc™), and pursuing global partnerships, including first international commercial partnerships with Ajinomoto Co. (Thailand) Ltd and The Coffee Ferm in Australia and New Zealand, a co-branded Melvados ice cream, and Philippine market expansion with Pick Up Coffee.