Bellwether Coffee raises $40 million for eco-friendly roasters

In 2013, Ricar­do Lopez found­ed Bell­wether Cof­fee with a lofty goal: trans­form the way cof­fee is roast­ed, dis­trib­uted, and sold. His pitch con­vinced investors to fork over $10 mil­lion in August 2018 for a slice of a mar­ket that’s antic­i­pat­ed to be worth $680 mil­lion by 2024. Today, Berke­ley, Cal­i­for­nia-based Bell­wether announced that it’s raised $40 mil­lion in series B fund­ing led by DBL Part­ners and broth­ers Lyn­don and Peter Rive. The round saw addi­tion­al con­tri­bu­tions from FusionX, Con­gru­ent Ven­tures, Cof­fee Bell, Tan­dem Cap­i­tal, Spin­drift Equi­ties, XN Ven­tures, Bal­ius Part­ners, and Hard­ware Club, and it brought Bellwether’s total raised to near­ly $60 million.

CEO Nathan Gilliland said the funds will accel­er­ate Bellwether’s efforts to boost incomes for cof­fee farm­ers and elim­i­nate roast process­es harm­ful to the plan­et, and to meet glob­al demand for its recent­ly announced elec­tric roaster.

“We are thrilled to be work­ing close­ly with DBL, Lyn­don and Peter Rive to help accel­er­ate our already rapid growth,” said Gilliland. “We expect in-store roast­ing at cafes and gro­cery loca­tions to become the rule, not the excep­tion. We are proud that the Bell­wether Roast­er has become the most con­sis­tent and con­trol­lable com­mer­cial cof­fee roast­er available.”

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