Crowdfunding campaign, brand activation and documentary film project with funding award from German federal ministry of culture.
Surrounded by mountains and rainforest, Macenta is one of the birthplaces of coffee: a natural biosphere that still carries varieties of wild coffee which have never been explored. Yet an unsustainable system of cash-crops and exploitative supply routes has undermined the ability of local producers to provide the stewardship this incredible ecosystem deserves. But change is coming.
Thanks to connections made through the aXd Fellows Program, a German government backed development initiative that I helped to design, I met Mamy Dioubate, the charismatic founder of Macenta Beans, a pioneering grassroots venture based in Guinea and Berlin.
Macenta Beans is not only producing world-class robusta coffee. The startup is bringing state-of-the-art eco technologies and infrastructure to West Africa’s farmers, working in partnership with them to build sustainable practices that combine environmental safeguards with social and economic justice.
In 2021, following a successful crowdfunding campaign I helped to create on the Startnext platform, Macenta Beans secured partnerships with upmarket European roasters including Coffee Circle. They have also completed key infrastructure projects in West Africa and are now working with over 1000 small, independent coffee farmers in the Macenta region.
Since then our funding application to the German federal ministry of culture (BKM) has been awarded and I am currently working with director Sorina Gajewski and producer Milena Krmek on the screenplay for a feature-length documentary focusing on the upcoming 22/23 coffee season.
Surrounded by mountains and rainforest, Macenta is one of the birthplaces of coffee: a natural biosphere that still carries varieties of wild coffee which have never been explored. Yet an unsustainable system of cash-crops and exploitative supply routes has undermined the ability of local producers to provide the stewardship this incredible ecosystem deserves. But change is coming.
Thanks to connections made through the aXd Fellows Program, a German government backed development initiative that I helped to design, I met Mamy Dioubate, the charismatic founder of Macenta Beans, a pioneering grassroots venture based in Guinea and Berlin.
Macenta Beans is not only producing world-class robusta coffee. The startup is bringing state-of-the-art eco technologies and infrastructure to West Africa’s farmers, working in partnership with them to build sustainable practices that combine environmental safeguards with social and economic justice.
In 2021, following a successful crowdfunding campaign I helped to create on the Startnext platform, Macenta Beans secured partnerships with upmarket European roasters including Coffee Circle. They have also completed key infrastructure projects in West Africa and are now working with over 1000 small, independent coffee farmers in the Macenta region.
Since then our funding application to the German federal ministry of culture (BKM) has been awarded and I am currently working with director Sorina Gajewski and producer Milena Krmek on the screenplay for a feature-length documentary focusing on the upcoming 22/23 coffee season.