From a SodaStream to 100,000 Cans: Our First Year at Koaba

It feels like only yesterday we were standing in a home kitchen, staring at a bubbling sodastream and wondering if we were crazy.

Now, as we head into the Christmas break, I’m looking at the spreadsheets and I have to pinch myself. Since our standing start launch in February, over 100,000 cans of Koaba have been drunk across the UK. We’ve gone from a kitchen experiment to being stocked in over 600 locations.

For a business that started with just £5,000 and zero marketing budget, this year has been a journey equal parts exhausting and exhilarating. As we close out the year, I wanted to pull back the curtain on how we got here, the struggles we faced, and the people who helped us fly.

We didn't have investors throwing cash at us. We had a small pot of savings and a belief in a little-known ingredient, cacaofruit.

Before we ever canned a drop, we were making cacaofruit soda at home. We knew the flavour was unique, but we needed validation. We needed to know that you liked it. We spent those early days hunting for that "Wow" reaction when people took their first sip. Once we had that confirmation, we enlisted the help of our local marketing agency, Creative Direction, who helped us build a brand that looked shelf-ready before we even hit the streets.

Hit the streets we did, literally. We launched by going door-to-door in London, selling the dream one person, and one can, at a time.

We owe a massive debt of gratitude to the industry voices who shouted about us when we were still small. A huge thank you to The Grocer for featuring us early on -  that industry stamp of approval was gold dust.

The real whirlwind started with Sorted Food. When the YouTube giants gave us a full feature as a "future drink," we simply weren’t prepared. We thought we were ready, but the response was explosive. You guys sold us out several times over. We were scrambling to fulfill orders, completely blown away by the demand. It was a trial by fire that taught us a massive amount about scaling, and fast.

One of our biggest hurdles was educating the market on a flavour they hadn’t tried before. But once people tasted it, the creativity started flowing.

While Koaba is a refreshing soft drink on its own, this year saw us evolve into a serious mixer contender. We’ve had the privilege of collaborating with heavy hitters like the Campari Group, Ocho Tequila, Cazcabel Tequila, CleanCo, and many others. Seeing our liquid turned into incredible cocktails has been a major highlight of the year.

I won’t sugarcoat it, taking on the large incumbent brands as a startup is a fight. Behind the Instagram posts and the sales figures, there have been plenty of sleepless nights.

The reality of startup life is managing cash flow on a shoestring, chasing people who won't pay invoices, and wearing a dozen different hats in a single day - jumping from Head of Sales to Marketing Intern to Logistics Manager in the space of an hour. Every time we felt the burn, we’d see another order come in, or another person post about discovering their new favourite drink, and it kept us moving forward.

As we enter the festive period, our Christmas orders have been huge, and we are ending the year on a massive high. We are thrilled to announce that next year, Koaba is going global, with plans to launch into Europe and the UAE.

Finally, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us. To the partners, the stockists, and the agencies, thank you.

Mostly, thank you to you. Especially those early adopters who ordered a trial pack when we were just a weird new fruit soda on the internet. We will never forget that early support.

Here’s to a refreshing Christmas and an even bigger New Year.

Mathew Halford