St. Louis startup wants to help make African farmers reach economic improvement
Two students from St. Louis University have created Moii Coffee, an online business that connects farmers and roasters directly
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Both of the founders know African coffee personally — they grew up around it — and now they’re trying to help American coffee drinkers and African coffee roasters connect directly.
Moii Coffee is the brainchild of St. Louis entrepreneur Firaol Ahmed, a senior at the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business at SLU, and co-founded by his head of tech Andy Irakoze. They’re from Africa — one from Ethiopia, the other from Burundi.
Together they have created the Moii platform as a place where African coffee farmers can list their products, beans and business profiles online. Then, coffee roasters outside of Africa can order coffee beans directly from the farmers.
Ahmed tells First Alert 4 he was never much of a coffee drinker before he started roasting coffee beans in St. Louis after bringing them home from trips back to Ethiopia. That slowly turned into Moii Coffee, and he hopes it will help all these farmers live a better life.
SLU describes the Moii Coffee business as going “from dorm room to the world.” It was founded in 2023, and SLU says Moii is a supply chain and logistics firm connecting coffee farmers in Africa with roasters.
“We want to change the narrative and give the farmers the selling power,” Ahmed said. “Our mission is the same – we are humanizing the coffee business and putting the power in the hands of the growers.”
He credits much of the interest to the work of Irakoze, who ed Moii as co-founder and chief technology officer this summer. Irakoze graduated from SLU in May 2023 with a master’s in computer science. He was working as a software engineer when he decided to jump into Moii with Ahmed.
“I quit my job – I thought this was the moment to do something big,” he said.
Irakoze had to create software for growers with limited internet access and less time on their hands. The platform allows roasters to see and hear from the growers themselves, and for the growers to control the price of their product.
“We are changing the model. Big importers go into a country, look at the beans, and try to predict what people want. They buy in bulk. Moii’s customers look at the product, try it, and determine how much they need,” Ahmed said. “We allow the farmers to price their products and build a network to themselves. We are telling the farmers that they have the power, and they call the shots where their crop is concerned.”
They have clients across the U.S. After adding more farmers in his birth country of Ethiopia, Ahmed told SLU the next country Moii wants to expand to is Burundi. From there, they plan to expand to more African nations and then to other coffee-producing nations.
“We are building relationships – we want farmers and roasters to find partners they trust and work with them for the next 10 years,” Ahmed said. “This allows farmers to plan their harvest accordingly and have some financial stability.”
Avery Martinez covers water, ag & the environment for First Alert 4. He is also a Report for America corps member, as well as a member of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. His coverage goes from corn farms to hunting concerns, and local water rates to rancher mental health.
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