Asia-Pacific Power List 2025: Cynthia Chaerunissa, Kopi Kenangan

Cynthia Chaerunnisa

Co-founder and chief marketing officer
Kopi Kenangan
Indonesia
New member  

Cynthia Chaerunnisa has been immersed in the world of online businesses in Indonesia for over a decade. She has worked at Rocket Internet for Foodpanda; co-founded beauty box service Lolabox; and applied her marketing degree from Australia’s Curtin University by clocking in marketing stints at Sephora, Uber, and Shopee before her second innings in an entrepreneurial venture as co-founder and CMO at Kenangan Brands. 

The flagship coffee chain Kopi Kenangan was Indonesia’s first F&B unicorn and has been on a tear when it comes to expansion both in its home market and overseas. Apart from Indonesia, the brand is present in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines in Southeast Asia, and has also opened in India and Australia. In India, Kopi Kenangan has an ambitious goal of surpassing the 10-store mark by the end of 2025. 

The expansion comes on the back of extensive pre-launch research and tailoring the brand’s offering to the tastes and preferences of each market. Unlike the sit-down coffee experience offered by a chain like Starbucks, Kopi Kenangan has positioned itself as a competitively-priced digitally driven brand, powered by modestly sized stores, and online orders. 

The app-first strategy gives Kenangan Brands a deeper insight into the consumption habits and patterns of consumers. Push notifications and offers are effectively deployed to lure customers back. For a campaign to promote food and coffee pairings, Kopi Kenangan leveraged its own data as well as inputs from digital specialist ADA to create audience segments, targeting them with messages tailored to evoke a response.

Given Chaerunnisa’s extensive experience with digital first business models, one can see how Kopi Kenangan’s marketing strategies are set to extract the maximum value out of tailored messaging powered by consumer data.