Case Study
How koawach scaled a Fairtrade brand with quickpaid
For a Fairtrade-certified brand, most financing solutions break the chain of custody the moment ownership changes hands. koawach needed a way to fund growth without ever losing ownership of its products.
Here’s how they found it.
The Background
koawach started in a student kitchen. Founder Daniel Duarte didn’t drink coffee but he loved chocolate. Combine that with guarana, the naturally caffeinated berry from Brazil, and you get the idea: the energy of coffee, the taste of chocolate, every ingredient Fairtrade-certified.
Fairtrade isn’t a label for Daniel, it’s the reason the company exists. When no certification existed for guarana, he built one with a cooperative in Brazil, creating the world’s first. In 2020, koawach received the Fairtrade Award. Today, koawach’s products sell everywhere from corner shops to major supermarket chains.
The financing problem behind the label
Fairtrade and organic certification require full traceability. Every step, from raw material to finished product, needs to be documented. That creates a very specific financing constraint.
Most traditional models, like fine trading, involve a third party temporarily owning the goods. The moment ownership changes hands, the certification chain breaks. Suddenly your financing partner needs to be certified too. For a growing company, that’s a wall.
Daniel spent years looking for a solution that worked within his certification requirements. Most fell short.
Why quickpaid fits
A business partner introduced Daniel to quickpaid, and It clicked immediately.
koawach uploads supplier invoices to the portal, the supplier gets paid immediately, and koawach repays up to 120 days later. Ownership never leaves koawach. No certification chain is broken. Just a clean, traceable flow from supplier to shelf.
“quickpaid is one of the few financing solutions that legally allows us to remain the owners of our products throughout the entire process. We don’t need to arrange any certification for our financing partner, which was very important to us.” says Daniel.
For Daniel, the partnership matters as much as the product. He values financing relationships that feel like collaboration, not transactions and quickpaid fits that standard. The portal is simple, the process is fast, and the team understands what a growing Fairtrade brand actually needs.
“In our daily operations, quickpaid is an invaluable partner. It’s the optimal solution for securing the financing of our certified products.”
– Daniel Duarte, Founder & CEO of koawach GmbH
Advice from a founder who's been through it
Cash flow is one of the fundamental pillars of building a company. The excitement of winning customers is real, but it fades fast when the money runs out.
Duarte’s advice: be careful with your payment flows where they come from, how they move. Don’t try to do everything yourself. And take the time to find the right financing setup. The wrong one can cost more than money.
“The right purchase financing partner can make life significantly easier for a founder and give you a few extra hours of sleep.”
– Daniel Duarte, Founder & CEO
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