Jay-Z and Serena Williams near a payday as their Indonesian coffee chain moves toward an IPO

Kopi Kenangan has announced a sale of secondary shares by existing stakeholders, the clearest signal yet that the Indonesian coffee chain backed by Jay-Z and Serena Williams is heading for a stock market listing.

A secondary sale means existing investors selling their own shares rather than the company issuing new ones, so the money goes to the shareholders. Both are on the register.

Jay-Z invested in 2019 through Arrive, the venture arm of Roc Nation, and Serena Williams came in at the same time through Serena Ventures. The chain was two years old.

Its valuation has since crossed $1 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Kopi Kenangan had approached banks about an initial public offering that could value it at as much as $1 billion, with Singapore on the shortlist of listing venues, and some coverage has put the range as high as $1.4 billion. The company said then that no decisions had been made on timing, location or valuation.

The numbers behind it have moved fast. Group revenue rose 62% year on year in the first half of 2026 and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 86% in the second quarter, according to Alpha JWC, an early backer. Net revenue reached $184 million in 2025, up 45%, with net profit of $17 million, the company's first full year of annual profitability.

Existing investors are buying as well as selling. Alpha JWC raised its stake this month in an ongoing funding round alongside founder Edward Tirtanata, and Tybourne Capital Management and Horizons Ventures also increased theirs.

Tirtanata started the business in 2017 selling coffee priced between what street vendors charge and what Starbucks does, ordered through an app and collected rather than consumed in store. Its signature drink combines Indonesian robusta and arabica beans with milk, creamer and palm sugar.

It now runs more than 1,500 outlets across seven markets, having opened 221 this year, and trades as Kenangan Coffee outside Indonesia, where it operates in Singapore, Malaysia, India and Australia. The company claims about a third of Indonesia's coffee chain market.

It became Southeast Asia's first new retail food and beverage unicorn in 2021 and has raised roughly $240 million, with Peak XV Partners, the former Sequoia Capital India, among its investors alongside the Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and the basketball player Caris LeVert.

Jay-Z has been building in Asia separately. He set up MarcyPen Asia, a $500 million joint venture with Hanwha Asset Management aimed at high-growth consumer businesses across the continent.