Coffee Fellows

With the funds from Paarl Equity’s growth financing, our business model developed faster than we expected. This enabled us to roll out Germany-wide. In the process, Paarl Equity was always at our side as a sparring partner, which was extremely helpful. Our collaboration was very productive for us, and contributed substantially to our present success.

– Dr. Stefan Tewes

Coffee Fellows is a coffeehouse chain. The first branch opened in 1999 in Leopoldstrasse in Munich.

Paarl Equity came into the picture in 2007 within the framework of a capital increase with the aim of growth financing.

At the time, Coffee Fellows was operating twelve locations, most of them in the greater Munich area.

Thanks to the active investment from Paarl Equity, Coffee Fellows managed a Germany-wide rollout.

Our strategic input and hands-on accompaniment was a great help to them in this process. The number of coffeehouses grew organically and, by the time of our exit in 2014, had expanded exponentially through the purchase of another coffee group. In 2015, the chain operated more than 90 branches throughout Germany.

In a hotly contested market, Coffee Fellows carved out a firm second place for itself after Starbucks and meanwhile operates more than 100 locations. Since our participation ended, Coffee Fellows has once again obtained fresh money and continues to grow at a disproportionately fast rate thanks to a master franchise contract with Tank & Rast.