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Panoramic view on the North Campus © Jürgen Huhn​/​TU Dortmund
Students launch West African drink on German market

Start-Up with Good Taste and a Mission

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Photo: Two people are sitting on a stone staircase surrounded by greenery on campus. © RUB, Marquard
Students Ben Aziabou and Marya Kapenda have launched the West African drink bissap on the German market with their start-up “afro drinks by bam.”
Bissap has the fruity and refreshing taste of hibiscus, rounded off with a slight hint of nutmeg, and a pleasant acidity. This is how Ben Aziabou and Marya Kapenda describe the taste of their soft drink. Made from the dried flowers of the hibiscus plant, it is popular in many West African countries but still largely unknown in Germany. That is why the two students established their start-up “afro drinks by bam” to launch the drink on the German market. Their aim is to use the proceeds to open a youth center in Togo.

Ben Aziabou, a computer science student at TU Dortmund University, remembers bissap from his childhood, when his mother used to make it herself in the kitchen. “I’ve lived in Germany for a very long time, so I hadn’t drunk bissap in ages,” he says. In spring 2022, it sprang to mind again, but he was unable to find it in any supermarket in Germany. Without further ado, he developed his own bissap recipe. When his girlfriend Marya Kapenda, a management and economics student at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), tried it for the first time, she was convinced. “More people need to hear about bissap,” she said. “What’s more, hibiscus is a real superfood. It’s rich in antioxidants, as well as containing a lot of iron and vitamin C.”

First steps at a Christmas market

The same year presented the first opportunity to test whether people in Germany would like it. The start-up entrepreneurs offered their first hundred bottles of bissap for sale at a Christmas market in Cologne. “To produce enough, we stood in our kitchen all day long,” says Ben Aziabou. By that point, Marya Kapenda had already designed the logo. The drink sold out – all one hundred bottles – on the very first day. “Lots of people were familiar with bissap from their own trips to Africa or bought the bottles as gifts,” says Marya Kapenda. Ben Aziabou adds: “We were rather worried that people might be biased against an African drink, but so far everyone likes it.” It is precisely because African products are often underrepresented or stereotyped in Germany that the two students want to communicate a positive image of African culture through their start-up.

Goal is a youth center in Togo

At about the same time, the two young entrepreneurs developed another vision that they hope to fulfill with the sale of their drinks. They noticed during a trip to Togo that there was hardly anywhere for children and youngsters to meet up, which is why they want to use the proceeds from their start-up to open a youth center in Togo. “The idea also came to us because for several years we helped to organize a children’s and youth program in Dortmund,” says Marya Kapenda. “We know how important such places are for development and interaction.”

From an idea to their own business

With the first successes under their belt, both wanted to continue. Bissap should become a business venture. Their first port of call was WORLDFACTORY, the start-up center at RUB, where they were given professional advice on how to start a company and established initial contacts to the start-up scene. They worked on their idea for a year before finally setting up “afro drinks by bam GmbH” in 2023. The advisors at the Center for Entrepreneurship & Transfer (CET) at TU Dortmund University drew the team’s attention to the “Gründungsstipendium NRW”, a start-up grant awarded by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. “We applied, and our pitch successfully convinced the jury, so we received the grant for a whole year,” Ben Aziabou is proud to report.

At the present time, they are working to attract organic supermarkets and delicatessens as distribution partners. From the end of January, bissap will be on sale in the main canteen at TU Dortmund University and soon also in a store right in the middle of Bochum city center. The plan is to introduce further African soft drinks into the German market in the coming years.

About the start-up