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It was announced today that Aeropress Inc., the company that manufactures the wildly popular Aeropress coffee brewer and Aeropress Go travel brewer, announced major capital investment by a Victoria, BC, Canada investment firm, Tiny Capital, Ltd.
The Aeropress, announced and introduced to the world in CoffeeGeek’s forums back in 2005, and rolled out as a retail product that same year, is found for sale in over 80 different countries around the world, with millions of units sold. When introduced, it was a completely new brewing method for coffee, one that, while entirely unique, did share some similarities with the then-popular “Clover” Brewing device (which was eventually bought by Starbucks).
The Aeropress went on to become wildly popular, fostering hundreds of different ways to brew with it. People were so enthralled with the device that local, regional, national and even international brewing competitions, featuring unique ways to brew with it, were spawned. The product has been to the highest peaks, lowest valleys, and for the longest time, has been in use by serious coffee nerds brewing on airplanes 35,000 above the ground. It has also spawned a giant accessory after-market cluster of products designed to work with the Aeropress.
The original Aeropress has been slightly refined over the years, including a change in plastics used, but primarily remains the same as when it was introduced in 2005 for retail sale. The company has rolled out one new product in it’s 16 year history, the Aeropress Go, designed more for travel use and includes a drinking mug.
Alan Adler, the inventor and chief engineer for Aeropress remains an owner with this new investment partnership by Tiny, and will continue to be directly involved in the company.
“We are thrilled to join Alan, the AeroPress team and the amazing AeroPress fans,” said Andrew Wilkinson, Co-Founder of Tiny. “We’re committed to maintaining the brand’s quality that has won so many coffee lovers around the world and look forward to becoming part of this community.”
“The worldwide embrace of the AeroPress has been an inventor’s dream,” said Adler, founder of AeroPress, Inc. “This partnership with Andrew, Chris and the team at Tiny will help us create new coffee products. Our culture of quality and performance will remain at the heart of our pursuit to provide the most delicious coffee to coffee fans around the world.”
Wilkinson continued, “I’ve been a daily user of the AeroPress for a long time, and one morning I looked down at it and said ‘I wonder who owns this’. My partner Chris and I sent Alan an email, flew down to see him, and have been begging him to let us invest ever since. We’re thrilled to be able to bring marketing to help put AeroPresses in homes, offices, and backpacks all over the world. It’s an incredible business.”
It certainly will be exciting to see where this new partnership and capital investment takes Aeropress in the future, including the possibility of developing new products.
The existing AeroPress team will continue to work at headquarters in Palo Alto, California and manufacturing will continue at the same factory in the San Francisco Bay Area as it has for decades.
Mark has certified as a Canadian, USA, and World Barista Championship Judge in both sensory and technical fields, as well as working as an instructor in coffee and espresso training. He started CoffeeGeek in 2001.