How Prefer backed their sustainability claims and raised US$4.2M

Who is Prefer?

Prefer is a Singapore-based food technology company making coffee and cocoa flavours and ingredients through fermentation. Founded in 2022 by former neuroscientist Jake Berber and Co-Founder & CTO Ding Jie Tan, their products blend into existing recipes at up to 40% inclusion with no flavour change, and at up to 40% lower cost than traditional coffee and cocoa. They supply FMCG brands, ingredient manufacturers, and flavour houses across APAC, with global expansion underway.

The Challenge

Strong sustainability claims, without the granular data to support them.

Before working with Zevero, Prefer had developed internal estimates of their product's carbon footprint, but these were based on their own assumptions and had not been externally validated. As a brand positioning itself as a more sustainable alternative to traditional coffee, the absence of verified data was a growing risk. Without ISO-aligned carbon data, investor conversations were difficult to progress, and commercial credibility was hard to establish.

Producing a credible PCF independently was not straightforward. As a young company with a novel, fermentation-based production process, Prefer had no standard methodology that mapped directly to how they made their products. Getting the lifecycle boundaries right required specialist knowledge that the team did not have in-house.

We didn't have the internal capacity or expertise to do it properly. We didn't have the data or methodology to prove it in a way that would hold up to customer scrutiny.

‍The Solution

A rigorous PCF delivered without heavy internal resources.

Prefer chose Zevero to produce a complete, cradle-to-grave product carbon footprint for PreferRoast, aligned with ISO 14067:2018.

Because Prefer's production process is novel, standard methodologies did not map directly to how they make their products. Zevero worked through the lifecycle boundaries carefully to ensure the output was accurate and would hold up to external scrutiny.

The work also built internal capability within Prefer's team, giving them a working understanding of ISO standards and how to apply them to future products.

We chose Zevero because of speed, ease of process, and confidence in the methodology. We needed something credible that wouldn't take months of internal bandwidth to complete.

The Results

Data that changed how Prefer talks to customers

Fuel for fundraising and partnerships‍

Having ISO-aligned carbon data meant investor conversations could progress on numbers that would hold up to scrutiny, rather than internal estimates. When Prefer closed a US$4.2M funding round, the PCF featured in their investor materials, and gave the team a credible sustainability story to bring into partnership discussions as they expanded internationally.

A number worth sharing

The PCF confirmed that PreferRoast is 8.8 times less carbon-intensive than traditional coffee, at 3.3 kg CO2e per kilogram of product compared to up to 29 kg CO2e per kilogram for Arabica. This figure is now featured on Prefer's website, in press releases, and in commercial conversations with customers and partners.

Visibility into where emissions come from

For the first time, Prefer had a clear, evidence-based view of where in the product lifecycle their emissions sit. Production accounts for approximately 66% of total emissions, and raw material procurement for approximately 31%. This breakdown has helped shape both how the team communicates with customers on sustainability and where future reduction efforts will be focused.

The most valuable part about working with Zevero is having validated data we can share with customers and share publicly. Before Zevero, our sustainability claims were only directional and estimated, which was limiting.

Looking Ahead

With a 500-tonne facility due to be commissioned in Q3 2026, Prefer plans to remeasure their PCF at full production scale. At that volume, the emissions picture may look different, giving the team more accurate data to work with as the business grows. They are also looking to expand measurement to additional SKUs as their product range grows.