Take a walk along Kingsland Road or around the trendy parts of Stoke Newington and you’ll probably find yourself spoilt for choice for independent coffee shops, and now DripApp could enhance your experience.
Many of these artisan coffee shops are now becoming early adopters of DripApp, an app for iPhone and Android that allows users to pay-as-you-go or pay monthly for a supply of coffee.
The creators of the app say it will be the be ‘Oyster card’ of cafés.
Serious caffeine addicts can sign up to the app’s “unlimited mode” for £89 per month.
The new smart technology for buying coffee seems like Uber for espresso, but the startup’s founders, Jeremy Cortial and Ruben Grigri, are sticking to small, independent coffee shops rather than signing up big chain brands.
The company believe their app could help level the playing field for local cafés, while bringing independent shops into a new, smart age of doing business, competing with big chains with their “Oyster card for coffees”.
DripApp is currently in use in about eight shops near Kingsland Road, five in Stoke Newington, as well as others around Old Street and Shoreditch.
DripApp’s Lauren Barnett told Hackney Post the startup was keen to grow its operations in Hackney: “We have some amazing partners in Hackney already – China Plate Espresso, Footnote and Ello Darling to name a few – and we have several more in the pipeline.
“We definitely want to keep expanding in this area.”
Barnett said the company had added a number of Hackney-based partners in the past few weeks, with Beryl’s in Dalston and The Canary in Bethnal Green both confirmed last week.
DripApp say they are trying to spread the experience of independent coffee shops to thsoe who usually go to large brand cafés. They say the app could save users up to 50% on daily hot drinks.
DripApp, an Oyster card for coffee?
The app provides a menu for every shop on the app, allowing coffee lovers to browse the wares at each shop. The company say the unlimited monthly plan works out at under £3 a day, resulting in savings for those who prefer more expensive artisan coffee.
Barnett said the inspiration for the app came up “over a lot of flat whites”.
She said: “We figured out that the coffee market, especially the independent coffee market, is booming pretty fast. Starbucks does more than 20% of its transactions through its mobile app.
“We wanted to create a platform where the independents have the chance to compete with the large chains by increased visibility, while offering benefits to the customer such as discounts and discovering hidden gems around London.”
DripApp say getting customers into independent shops can also boost sales of food to give added revenue to the businesses.
“The appeal to the coffee shop is that food is not included, so hopefully they’ll get additional sales and additional business from friends who accompany the subscription holder,” said Barnett.
Barnett said the company has big ambitions to expand beyond London: “We want to be the largest network of independent coffee shops in the UK.”
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