Chamberlain Coffee began with a product that already belonged in its founder's public life. It has since developed into a consumer company spanning ecommerce, national retail and physical cafés.
Emma Chamberlain had made coffee shops, iced coffee and home preparation part of her videos before launching the company in December 2019. The first release contained one blend in steepable single-serve bags and a mug. Chamberlain later said the batch sold out after more than one million people visited the site in its first day.[1][3][2]
The company used that demand to build a repeat-purchase business. It expanded into whole beans, ground and instant coffee, cold-brew products and matcha, entered major retailers, raised outside capital and opened two permanent Los Angeles cafés. Forbes estimated 2023 revenue at about $20 million, four years after the first product.[14][2][16]
From a YouTube ritual to a coffee company
Chamberlain began posting on YouTube as a teenager in 2016. Her audience watched her visit cafés, prepare iced coffee and discuss coffee as part of her daily routine. Contemporary reporting placed her combined YouTube and Instagram following at about 17 million when Chamberlain Coffee launched, but the relevance of the audience mattered as much as its size. Coffee was already connected to how viewers understood her.[1][4]
Los Angeles roaster Bixby Coffee developed and roasted the original blend using beans from Colombia, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Steeped Coffee supplied the single-serve bags, which could be used for hot coffee or cold brew without specialist equipment. UTA Ventures helped assemble the business around Chamberlain, and Blazar Capital became its first investor.[4][3][2][8]
The company widened the range during its 2020 relaunch. Whole-bean and ground coffee, cold-brew singles, instant coffee and brewing accessories made Chamberlain Coffee relevant to more preparation habits. Matcha, tea and hot chocolate later gave it products beyond coffee, while the packaging used colour and animal characters to make different blends easy to distinguish.[5][6]
Retail turned a direct-to-consumer brand into a national business
Packaged coffee entered Erewhon in 2021 and Sprouts in 2022. The company then added Gopuff and Amazon, launched plant-based canned lattes at Walmart in April 2023 and reached an agreement for part of the range to enter 800 Target locations in 2024. Retail placed the brand in front of shoppers who did not need to follow Chamberlain or visit its website first.[6][13][2]
The expansion moved fast. Forbes reported 8,500 US retail locations in April 2024, and the company said four months later that it had passed 12,000 storefronts. By 2025, management described a more concentrated footprint of more than 6,000 stores, with Whole Foods, Sprouts and Target as priority accounts. The figures use different definitions and dates, but the direction is clear: Chamberlain Coffee pursued wide distribution, then focused on fewer retail relationships.[2][8][12][18]
Supply problems helped drive that change. Business Insider reported that a former co-packer had caused stock shortages in 2024. Management planned to use larger suppliers, refine the assortment and increase promotional spending. The episode shifted the company's challenge from creating attention to keeping the right products available in stores.[12]
How Chamberlain Coffee sells
The company reaches customers through three channels. Its website sells packaged products, bundles and subscriptions directly. Retailers buy products for wholesale distribution. The cafés sell prepared drinks, pastries, merchandise and packaged goods. Each channel uses the same brand while asking the company to operate a different kind of business.
Ecommerce
Direct salesCoffee, matcha, accessories, bundles and subscriptions through the company's storefront.[14][15]
Retail
WholesalePackaged products distributed through grocery, mass-market and online retailers.[6][2]
Cafés
HospitalityPrepared drinks and a physical expression of the brand in Los Angeles.[16][18]
Specialist partners have remained important to production. Bixby and Steeped supplied the original product. The company now describes roasting in Los Angeles, on the East Coast and in the European Union, with certified Q Graders used to maintain roast profiles. It does not say it owns those facilities. The model gives Chamberlain Coffee access to manufacturing expertise while making supplier performance central to product availability.[3][20][12]
Emma Chamberlain moved into operating leadership
Chamberlain was the brand's founder and chief creative officer while professional operators built the company around her. Gustav Langberg Hossy joined as chief operating officer in 2020, and Christopher Gallant served as chief executive from 2021 through the mass-retail expansion. In August 2024, Chamberlain and Hossy replaced Gallant as co-chief executives.[8][9]
Chamberlain said the new role added retail strategy, hiring and business development to her marketing and partnership work. Hossy focused on growth and profitability. The arrangement made the founder responsible for more than the public image of the company at a point when retail execution and cost control had become pressing operating questions.[8]
Outside capital supported the expansion. The company raised a reported $1 million seed in 2020 and announced a $7 million Series A led by Blazar in 2022. A 2023 financing sold about $7 million of debt and securities linked to future ownership, and a 2024 filing recorded $4.6 million of equity sold. The instruments differ, so these events are more useful as a record of continued financing than as one conventional equity total.[7][6][10][11]
The brand moved into hospitality
Chamberlain Coffee opened its first permanent café at Westfield Century City in January 2025. The compact mall location tested prepared drinks in a high-traffic setting. The company said two months later that it had processed more than 30,000 transactions there and had four further cafés in development.[17][19]
A second café opened on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in May 2026. It added seating, ceramic service, local pastries and exclusive merchandise, giving the company a fuller version of the café experience associated with its founder. Chamberlain Coffee's current location page lists only the two Los Angeles sites.[18][16]
Century City
A compact outpost inside Westfield Century City.
Abbot Kinney
A seated Venice café with food and exclusive merchandise.
The next stage is execution across three channels
Chamberlain Coffee has lasted beyond its launch moment. It has operated for more than six years, entered national retail, built a broader product range and opened permanent cafés. Chamberlain's move into the co-CEO role also ties the founder more closely to the operating decisions behind that expansion.
The next stage depends on execution across the channels already in place. Retail needs reliable supply and productive shelf space. Ecommerce needs repeat purchases. The cafés need to become durable businesses rather than brand installations. Chamberlain's audience can still introduce the company to customers, but product quality, availability and repeat buying now determine how far it grows.