Kyle Anderson, the co founder (along with Kyra Kennedy) of Baratza LLC, has recently joined a very coffee-focused venture capitalist group WAVE Investments as a full partner and part of the company’s investment committee.
This is a big deal because WAVE is a privately owned investment company with a razor focus on supporting scalable businesses in the specialty coffee industry. WAVE has already made five investments since its formation in 2017.
Anderson joins another well known entity in the specialty coffee arena, Joshua Dick of Urnex, who is also a partner in WAVE, along with Nils Erichsen (of Mahlkonig and Ditting) who founded the investment firm. Dick and Urnex are well known for sponsoring and supporting a wide variety of barista competitions and other coffee competitions for several decades now.
WAVE currently focuses on investing in equipment manufacturers, coffee roasters, coffee foodservices and innovation in the specialty coffee sector. With Anderson on board, we expect there to be a lot more focus on consumer specialty coffee going forward. Anderson also has a background in engineering and is the principal designer of all of Baratza’s grinder products.
From the press release, Anderson said: “I’m excited to be able to join my long-term friends and business partners in the valuable work that WAVE is doing inside the Specialty Coffee Industry. I see WAVE as filling a special niche for entrepreneur’s and growing businesses inside our Specialty Coffee Community.”
I reached out to Anderson to ask some more questions about this new venture he’s involved in.
Q: Tell our readers more about WAVE Investments?
A: WAVE Investments focusses on existing companies within Specialty Coffee that are scalable, innovative, and that can benefit from the synergies that WAVE brings by virtue of WAVE partners’ combined broad experience in this sector.
Q: How will your involvement as a partner with WAVE affect your future with Baratza and Breville?
A: My role with WAVE is symbiotic with my ongoing roles at Baratza and (now) Breville. While we are all swimming in a small pond, there are possibilities for conflicts of interest, but these are well outweighed by the potential synergies.
Q: What projects is WAVE currently involved with that have you excited?
A: We are working with a number of roasters in Germany and the Nordics, where the partnering WAVE brings to each of them, improves the future for all of them. Also, we are invested in BKON, a company in the US with innovative cold-brew technology. BKON’s brewing technology combined with shelf-stable packaging is on a path to be truly disruptive.
We also have a number of other irons in the fire that I’d love to share with your readers, but they’re still developing. I will be sure to let you know the moment I can!
Mark has certified as a Canadian, USA, and World Barista Championship Judge in both sensory and technical fields, as well as working as an instructor in coffee and espresso training. He started CoffeeGeek in 2001.
