Early-stage startup investment firm TheVentures said on Jan. 12 it made a pre-A round investment in Wake, a foodtech startup that operates the beanless coffee alternative brand SANS.

Co-investors in the pre-A round included TheVentures and Shinsegae Group CVC Signite Partners. TheVentures focused on a 31 percent drop in coffee-belt output over the past five years due to climate change and on bean prices hitting a 50-year high, putting the coffee industry in structural crisis. It said it decided to invest after concluding Wake has secured differentiated technology that can provide a high-quality coffee experience without beans.

Wake's coffee alternative, SANS, uses 12 sustainable natural ingredients including jujube seeds and chicory roots. Wake said it combined "molecular hacking" technology, which analyzes coffee flavors at the molecular level and reproduces them identically, with traditional Korean fermentation methods to address at the same time the loss of flavor and residual caffeine problems that decaffeinated coffee has not solved.

Wake CEO Kyung-hoon Kim said, "Building on TheVentures' know-how specialized in nurturing early-stage companies, we will accelerate our expansion into global markets." He said, "In 2026, we plan to achieve 20 billion won in sales through North American online direct-to-consumer channels such as Amazon and open a store in New York to introduce sustainable coffee alternatives worldwide."