Kopi Kenangan weighs a Singapore listing with more than 1,500 stores across seven markets
The Indonesian coffee chain backed by Serena Williams and Jay-Z plans to list on the Singapore Exchange within 24 months, operating more than 1,500 stores of which over 1,100 are in Indonesia, 200 in Malaysia and 10 in Singapore.
The numbers
VnExpress International reported on 8 October 2026, citing World Coffee Portal, that Kopi Kenangan operates more than 1,500 stores across seven markets. Of those, more than 1,100 are in Indonesia, 200 in Malaysia and 10 in Singapore, where the first store opened at Raffles City in 2023.
Planned openings for 2026 are about 85 stores in Malaysia and nearly 390 in Indonesia. The company plans to go public within 24 months on the Singapore Exchange, having also considered the United States, Hong Kong and Indonesia, and has not ruled out a dual listing. The IPO size, revenue and valuation were not disclosed.
The company was founded in 2017 in Jakarta by Edward Tirtanata and two schoolmates. Serena Williams and Jay-Z invested an undisclosed amount in a 2019 seed round.
The detail that matters most
The report states that internal cash flow funds most new stores, and that a listing would mainly give early investors liquidity rather than finance expansion.
For anyone building a chain in Southeast Asia that single sentence is the whole story. A chain that can fund roughly 475 new stores in one year out of its own cash flow has solved the problem most regional chains have not: each store pays for the next one. An IPO then becomes an exit mechanism for shareholders, not a rescue.
The contrast with brands that expand on investor money is sharp. When growth depends on fundraising, a cooling capital market stops the build immediately. When growth depends on unit cash flow, the build continues through the cycle, and the main constraint becomes site supply and management depth.
Read it against the franchise question
The report does not state whether any of the 1,500 stores are franchised. That matters, because a company-funded build and a franchise build produce very different balance sheets and very different control over the customer experience.
For operators evaluating a regional partnership, the useful question is not how many stores a brand has, but how the last hundred were funded. The answer tells you whether you are being offered a growth engine or a funding gap.
This article summarises published reporting and is not investment advice.
Compiled from public sources for information only, not investment advice.