When Jake Berber started thinking seriously about the future of coffee, he wasn’t trying to convince people to stop drinking it. He was trying to figure out what happens when everyday coffee becomes too expensive for everyday consumers.

That idea became the starting point for Prefer, the Singapore-based startup Berber cofounded in 2022 with his cofounder Ding Jie Tan. Prefer uses fermentation to create coffee and cocoa extenders from ingredients like rice and chickpeas, products designed to blend into existing coffee and chocolate formulations while reducing cost and dependence on increasingly unstable commodity markets.

“We wanted to make sure that the mass market always had an affordable and accessible option for whatever products and food and beverage that they wanted,” Berber told The Spoon in a recent episode of The Spoon Podcast. “We saw in coffee, for example, arable farmland is decreasing, prices are rising, and we saw in 2025 cocoa prices just went through the roof.”

That pressure has only intensified over the past couple of years. Coffee and cocoa prices have climbed as climate disruptions, crop disease, and supply chain volatility continue to hit growers, while all the while demand keeps rising, particularly in markets like China and India where coffee consumption has surged.

At first, Berber and Tan looked to create a complete coffee replacement, but they quickly realized that wasn’t what most consumers actually wanted.

“No one wakes up in the morning and says, ‘Today I want a bean-free coffee,’” said Berber. “People wake up in the morning and say, ‘Dang, my coffee is a dollar more expensive today than it was a month ago.’”

That realization led the company to adopt a hybrid approach. Prefer’s primary customers are food manufacturers and beverage brands, who use the company’s fermented coffee and cocoa extenders in blends for instant coffee, canned lattes, brownies, chocolate milk, and confectionery products. According to Berber, manufacturers can replace up to 40% of a formulation without changing the flavor profile in a meaningful way.

As with proteins, the idea of product extenders isn’t entirely new in coffee. Coffee extenders have existed for generations in places like India, where chicory has long been blended with coffee during periods of scarcity or rising prices. Berber sees Prefer as a more modern version of the same concept, using fermentation to create something much closer to the flavor and aroma of coffee itself.

The company’s products are the result of years of iteration. Berber said the team has experimented with different microbes, enzymes, roasting methods, fermentation conditions, and extraction techniques to dial in both flavor and functionality.

Much of that fermentation expertise comes from Tan, who Berber (and others) call the “Prince of Fermentation” for his reputation working with Michelin-starred restaurants and bars in Singapore.

Berber’s own path into food tech was less conventional. He grew up in Austin and played collegiate tennis at Claremont McKenna, then moved to Israel where he worked around biotech startups and venture capital. He eventually landed in Singapore, where he met Tan and began exploring how fermentation could help create more resilient food systems.

Since launching, the company has raised more than $6 million, including a $4.2 million pre-Series A round announced last year led by At One Ventures and Chancery Hill Capital. For now, the company is focused largely on Asia, where Berber says Prefer has already signed roughly $20 million in MOUs with regional partners. Longer term, the company sees opportunities well beyond coffee and cocoa.

“We’ve shown this is truly a platform fermentation technology,” said Berber. “Coffee and cocoa are just the start.”

You can watch my full interview with Berber below or listen to it on The Spoon Podcast.