The New York-based café group is seeking to emulate the success of scaled boutique café brands Blue Bottle Coffee and La Colombe Coffee Roasters as the ‘most scalable and premier specialty coffee and breakfast brand’ in the US
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Citizens Coffee co-founders Justin Giuffrida (left) and Andrew Giesel (right) | Photo credit: Citizens Coffee
New York-based café group Citizens Coffee has embarked on a Series B crowdfunding campaign to support its ambitious outlet growth and sales goals.
Founded by Australia-born Andrew Giesel and Justin Giuffrida, the boutique business opened its first coffee shop in Manhattan in 2016 and currently operates three outlets across New York alongside a single site in Houston, Texas.
The food-focused operator serves a premium brunch menu of ‘classic Australian cuisines with an American twist’, alongside specialty coffee and craft cocktails.
In a press release, Citizen’s Coffee said it is seeking to ‘become the most scalable and premier specialty coffee and breakfast brand’ in the US, adding that the StartEngine investment round will bring it a step closer to reaching $100m annual sales and 40 new outlets by 2029.
“It’s important for us to scale while staying true to how we’ve grown the business since day one. We’ve carefully planned our expansion and crafted an investment strategy that lets us innovate in our space while staying true to our core mission of being a community-focused business that serves the best coffee and breakfast in town. We have identified a gap in the market – Americans are hungry for better breakfast. Consumer behaviour is reflecting that and we are excited to be the change that the market is craving,” said Giuffrida.
Citizens Coffee previously raised $1.2m in a 2021 Series A funding round, which included investments from former Facebook executive Randi Zuckerberg and US soccer player Sean Davis.
The investment enabled Citizens to expand to Texas in 2023, with the Houston site its most profitable store to date – achieving an annual run rate of over $2m in the first 12 months.
The Series A round also supported Citizens Coffee’s move to bring roasting in-house in 2023, as well as its packaged coffee launch, which currently comprises wholebean and coffee pod ranges.
The Australian-inspired café group has achieved 170% revenue growth since the 2021 raise, with total sales to date above $27m. Citizens Coffee’s year-on-year sales growth in the second quarter of 2024 reached 29%.
This business said its strong sales performance puts it on the same trajectory as scaled boutique operator Blue Bottle Coffee, which achieved a $700m valuation after selling a majority stake in its business to Swiss food and beverage giant Nestlé in 2017. Citizens Coffee also drew parallels to Pennsylvania-based La Colombe Coffee Roasters, which was acquired by US dairy giant Chobani for $900m in December 2023.