LetSequoia — Specialty Coffee from the Heart of Africa

Why LetSequoia Exists

The Coffee Industry's
Dirty Secret

The coffee you drink travels from a farm in Rwanda to your cup through a chain of traders, importers, roasters, and retailers — each taking a cut. By the time value is distributed, the farmer who grew it gets almost none of it.

7¢

What a farmer earns from your $2.80 cup of coffee

90%
Of coffee's total value that flows OUT of Africa to consuming countries

$600

Average annual income for a smallholder Arabica coffee farmer

5.5M

Of 12.5M global smallholder farmers living below the poverty line

The largest companies in specialty coffee — roasters, importers, retailers — have built extraordinary businesses on the backs of farmers who cannot afford to send their children to school on their annual income.

"Ethically sourced." "Fair trade." "Direct trade." These words appear on millions of bags. But when 90% of value flows out of the continent where the coffee is grown, words are not enough.

Anna Kim started LetSequoia because she believed the entire model was broken — and that someone needed to build a different one.

🌱

The LetSequoia Difference

Pre-finance working capital reaches farmers before harvest
Premium prices flow directly to washing station partners
Roasting happens at origin — keeping processing jobs in Africa
Long-term partnerships, not spot-market transactions
Digital Centers at every washing station — investing in the next generation

Meet the Woman Who Said Enough

Anna Inyoung Kim speaking at the Bhutan Innovation Forum 2024

Anna Kim — Bhutan Innovation Forum 2024 · Speaker & Panelist

"After a taxi driver told me it was safe to walk around at any time, I was so curious that I went for a run at 3:00 a.m."

— Anna Kim, SCA 25 Magazine, Issue 9 — "Rise and Shine in Rwanda"

The Founder

Anna Kim:
Architect of Africa's Coffee Future

Inyoung Anna Kim — "WonderWoman" to her team — didn't just find a niche in specialty coffee. She built one where none existed, in a country still rewriting its own story.

Armed with a UCLA education in International Development, Anna arrived in Kigali, Rwanda in 2013 as a young Korean-American female entrepreneur — knowing nobody, with no distribution network, no buyers, no connections. Just vision, nerve, and an almost reckless faith in Africa's potential. Kigali was not only clean, she would later tell SCA 25 Magazine — it was incredibly safe. Safe enough to run through at 3:00 a.m. She never left.

LetSequoia — named after the giant Sequoia's cooperative root system — became a pioneering force in global specialty coffee: spanning Rwanda and DR Congo, fostering meaningful growth in communities, and earning Anna a seat on the SCA Board of Directors. Her 2019 keynote at YPO EDGE in Cape Town moved a CEO audience to tears. In 2024, she was on the international stage again — this time at the Bhutan Innovation Forum, hosted alongside Columbia University's Initiative for Policy Dialogue, drawing parallels between Rwanda's coffee transformation and Bhutan's emerging economy.

Her vision: "Leading social entrepreneurship in Africa, fostering meaningful growth and cooperation within developing countries — bridging Africa economically, socially, and politically to the rest of the world."

Education

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
International Development

SCA Board of Directors

Specialty Coffee Association — Global governing body. Served through 2019. "Invaluable leadership and countless volunteer hours." — SCA

YPO EDGE 2019 — Speaker

Young Presidents' Organization Global Leadership Summit, Cape Town. Talk: "Putting Down Roots." Recognized among the world's top CEO-level social entrepreneurs.

AFCA Steering Committee

African Fine Coffees Association — Appointed 2017. Shapes policy for the continent's finest coffee export sector.

WEF White Paper Featured

"No Such Thing as a Commodity" — World Economic Forum, December 2018. Recognized alongside ITC, eBay, and DHL for innovative trade and packaging.

SCAE Int'l Dev. Committee

Specialty Coffee Association of Europe — Member since 2015. Driving development in origin countries.

Bhutan Innovation Forum 2024

Featured speaker, Oct 2024, Paro, Bhutan. Hosted with Columbia University Initiative for Policy Dialogue. Spoke on niche-product economic transformation and African coffee as a model for developing nations.

Cup of Excellence Partner 2014

LetSequoia's partner Muhondo Coffee won Rwanda Cup of Excellence 2014 — Presidential Winner, 91.00 score (highest that year). Auction price: $37.10/lb. A landmark validation of Rwanda's specialty coffee potential.

As seen in:

World Economic Forum YPO EDGE SCA 25 Magazine ITC · eBay · DHL

The Philosophy

Why the Sequoia?

The giant Sequoia is the largest living thing on Earth. But its roots are surprisingly shallow — never more than six feet deep.

Its secret? The Sequoia spreads its roots wide, intertwining with every neighboring tree, sharing nutrients, sharing water, holding each other upright in storms. Individually fragile. Collectively invincible.

That is LetSequoia. We don't extract from communities — we grow into them. Each farmer, each washing station, each partner country is another root in the system. The stronger our network, the taller we all grow.

See Our Impact

Self-Reliance

Community

Excellence

🌲

Years in Africa

Countries of Origin

Max Altitude (Mivona)

African Origins Available

600%

Trader Volume Growth with LetSequoia Partners

Who She Really Is

Fearless, Rooted,
Always Forward

Behind every cup of coffee is a 3AM decision, a one-way ticket, and a belief that Africa deserves better. These are the moments that made Anna Kim.

🌙 3AM

The 3AM Decision

A Kigali taxi driver told her the city was safe to walk at any hour. She laced up and ran at 3:00 AM — alone, through dark streets — just to know. She never left Rwanda.

🌱 2013

Two Bags. No Network.

She landed in Kigali in 2013 knowing nobody. No distributors. No buyers. Just UCLA International Development training and an unshakeable belief that Africa's coffee story deserved a different author.

Speaker on stage — YPO EDGE Cape Town 2019

🎤 YPO 2019

The Cape Town Stage

In 2019, Anna stood before 3,000 CEOs at YPO EDGE and delivered "Putting Down Roots." An attendee wrote: "As a mother of a 21-year-old — the most inspirational session of the summit."

🌍 Africa

Ambassador of Africa

"We are not only a producer of specialty coffee — we truly aim to serve as an ambassador of Africa." Every origin story Anna tells reshapes how the world sees the continent.

🇰🇷 → 🇷🇼

From Seoul to Kigali. Anna operates a Korea office at the Korea World Trade Tower, Gangnam-gu, Seoul — running @letsequoia_korea to bring single-origin African specialty coffee into Korea's discerning specialty market. Two continents. One mission. Born in Korea. Built in Africa. Rooted in both.

Inspire young leaders to exercise their leadership to reach higher goals together for the common good.

— Anna Kim, on why LetSequoia exists beyond coffee

Single-Origin Offerings

Coffee Born
at Altitude

Every cup we offer has a GPS coordinate, a farmer's name, and a story. We specialize in high-altitude, wet-processed specialty coffee from East and Central Africa.

Flagship

🇷🇼 Rwanda

Inzere Washing Station

Born from an extraordinary act of collective faith. Local farmers pooled 2,400–6,000 Rwandan Francs each — less than $10 — because no single farmer's harvest was large enough to matter alone. Together, they built something remarkable.

VarietyBourbon

ProcessWet-Process, Sun Dried

Elevation1,600–1,850m

RegionNyanza District, Southern Province

Request a Sample

🇨🇩 DR Congo

Mivona Washing Station

Among the most extraordinary high-altitude coffees on the continent. LetSequoia's company-owned station in Minova, managed by our team on the ground, employs local families and produces coffee at elevations that few in the world can match.

VarietiesBourbon, Blue Mountain, Local

ProcessWet-Process, Sun Dried

Elevation1,750–2,150m

RegionMpumpi, Minova, South Kivu

Request a Sample

Also Available From:

🇧🇮 Burundi 🇰🇪 Kenya 🇪🇹 Ethiopia 🇿🇲 Zambia 🇹🇿 Tanzania 🇹🇬 Togo 🇿🇦 South Africa 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe

We also offer roasted-at-origin coffee — sourced, processed, and packaged locally in Africa. Request our full buying guide →

Professional Services

CQR: Cupping,
Quality & Roasting

LetSequoia provides Cupping, Quality Control, and Roasting service to our clients — solutions designed to preserve our coffee's inherent qualities from crop to cup. Quality control monitors every step from cherry picking to shipment of green coffee, with on-site daily expert management throughout harvest.

Our custom roast profiles analyze the characteristics of each raw bean, and we offer OEM production for bulk orders. We are not only a producer of African specialty coffee — we truly aim to serve as an ambassador of Africa.

Basic

2 Weeks

Daily sessions

Initial flavor profiling and quality tracking — analyzing each raw bean's characteristics to establish your coffee's complete baseline profile.

✓ Component 1: Complete flavor profile
✓ Component 2: Profile change over time
○ Environmental analysis
○ Temperature effects
○ Storage material study

Get in Touch

Coffee as
Infrastructure

LetSequoia's mission has never been just about coffee. We are not only a producer of African specialty coffee — we truly aim to serve as an ambassador of Africa, building the economic infrastructure that makes African nations self-reliant one washing station, one digital center, and one farmer at a time.

Our washing stations double as community hubs. Every station is slated to house a Digital Center — giving farmers' children internet access and educational technology that reduces inequality by closing the knowledge gap.

Because Anna Kim believes the same thing every Sequoia tree proves: when roots intertwine, everyone reaches the light.

🌳

Sequoia Forest Project

Reforestation and biodiversity preservation around coffee-growing communities in Rwanda and DR Congo.

💰

Pre-Finance Program

Working capital for smallholder farmers before harvest — reaching farmers early so they don't borrow at punishing rates.

🏛️

The Coffee Commons

A shared marketplace and knowledge hub connecting East and Central African coffee producers directly with global specialty buyers.

Partners at Inzere CWS, Nyanza District, Rwanda

📡

Digital Access Mission
Every LetSequoia washing station will have a Digital Center — internet access and computer learning for farmers' children. Because connectivity is the new infrastructure.

Recognition

Where Anna's Work
Has Been Recognized

World Economic Forum

"No Such Thing as a Commodity" — WEF White Paper, December 2018. Anna Kim cited alongside ITC, eBay, and DHL for pioneering sustainable trade and origin-based packaging innovation.

YPO EDGE 2019 — Cape Town

"For me as a mother of a 21-year-old, the most inspirational session was listening to Anna Inyoung Kim. A Korean girl moving to Africa and doing what she can to create impact and fair trade across the coffee industry." — YPO EDGE Attendee

▶ Watch "Putting Down Roots" on YouTube →

SCA 25 Magazine — Issue 9

"Rise and Shine in Rwanda" — The global specialty coffee industry's flagship magazine profiles LetSequoia's model for building coffee infrastructure from origin up.

SCA Board of Directors

"Inyoung Anna Kim provided invaluable leadership to the association and dedicated countless volunteer hours." — Official SCA Board Farewell Note, 2019

Bhutan Innovation Forum 2024

Invited as a featured international speaker — October 2024, Paro, Bhutan. Hosted with Columbia University's Initiative for Policy Dialogue. Anna drew parallels between Rwanda's coffee-led economic rise and Bhutan's path forward: focus on niche excellence, invest in branding, command a premium.

Cup of Excellence 2014 — Rwanda

LetSequoia's partner, Muhondo Coffee CWS (Gakenke District), won Rwanda Cup of Excellence 2014 as Presidential Winner — the highest score of the competition at 91.00 points. Final auction price: $37.10/lb. A landmark result co-achieved with Anna's earliest Rwanda partnership, cementing LetSequoia's quality credentials from the very start.

Foldscope / Microcosmos — Stanford

Anna Kim applies Stanford's Foldscope paper microscopy technology to coffee origin research in Rwanda, DR Congo, Ethiopia, and Burundi — a field she entered with, in her own words, "zero background in science." Bridging frugal innovation and specialty coffee quality at origin.

In the News

Global Recognition

From the Himalayas to Cape Town — Anna Kim and LetSequoia making waves on the world stage.

Anna Kim speaking at Bhutan Innovation Forum 2024, Paro

October 2024

October 2024 · Paro, Bhutan

Speaker at the Inaugural Bhutan Innovation Forum

Among 125 speakers from 60 countries — alongside Nobel Laureates, CEOs, and Evan Spiegel — Anna spoke on entrepreneurship and specialty coffee as a vehicle for economic sovereignty, drawing parallels between Rwanda and Bhutan.

Read coverage →

March 2019

March 2019 · Cape Town, South Africa

Keynote at YPO EDGE — "Putting Down Roots"

At the Young Presidents' Organization EDGE conference in Cape Town, Anna delivered "Putting Down Roots" — a talk on building a lasting enterprise in Africa and bridging continents through the power of specialty coffee.

Watch on YouTube →

World Economic Forum global trade and development

December 2018

December 2018 · World Economic Forum

Featured in WEF White Paper on Digital Trade

LetSequoia was cited alongside ITC, eBay, and DHL in a World Economic Forum White Paper as a model for how digital tools can transform agricultural trade and lift smallholder farmer communities in developing economies.

World Economic Forum →

Specialty Coffee Association cupping table

2018–2019

2018–2019 · SCA Board of Directors

Appointed to SCA Board of Directors

Anna Kim was appointed to fill a vacant seat on the Specialty Coffee Association's Board of Directors — the global governing body of specialty coffee — serving through December 2019 and bringing origin-country voices to the industry's highest table.

SCA Announcement →

Rwanda red coffee cherries specialty harvest

2014

2014 · Rwanda Cup of Excellence

Presidential Winner — Cup of Excellence Rwanda

LetSequoia's partner washing station Muhondo CWS earned the Presidential Award at the 2014 Cup of Excellence Rwanda — scoring 91.00 points and achieving $37.10/lb. A landmark moment for Rwanda specialty coffee on the world stage.

Alliance for Coffee Excellence →

SCA 25 Magazine

SCA 25 Magazine · Issue 9

"Rise and Shine in Rwanda" — SCA Feature

The Specialty Coffee Association's flagship publication featured Anna Kim in a profile on building LetSequoia in Kigali — including her now-famous 3AM run that confirmed Rwanda would become her home and the foundation of a global coffee enterprise.

Read in SCA 25 Magazine →

She Left Los Angeles
to Change Africa

The Coffee Industry's
Dirty Secret

Anna Kim:
Architect of Africa's Coffee Future

Why the Sequoia?

Fearless, Rooted,
Always Forward