From weekend markets to a matcha network: How Kevin Chee built Matchaya

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Every so often, a budding entrepreneur senses the gentle shifting of tectonic plates, those early tremors of a burgeoning cultural trend that can reap a windfall if they move early and fast. In 2014, that seismologist of the times was Kevin Chee, a then 27-year-old corporate rat who spotted an adjacent opportunity in the booming speciality coffee market. As we sat down to a fancy brew at his flagship Matchaya cafe in Tiong Bahru on a quiet weekday morning, Chee recalled looking into the mixed beverage market and zeroing in on matcha. 

“At that time, people mainly bought matcha from Starbucks,” he said in his low, rapid-fire tone. “People thought of it more as a flavour. Like, matcha ice cream is Haagen-Dazs, and matcha chocolates are from Royce.” 

Matcha as a category was still nascent in Singapore, but Chee got brewing anyway, preparing bottled matcha lattes after work to sell at weekend markets. His side gig blew up on social media, garnering 50 to 60 posts each day from happy customers. That was enough to persuade him to quit his job as a management trainee at DBS Bank and open Matchaya’s first outlet at Icon Village six months later – a 100-sq-ft space that ticked all the right boxes: a central location, good visibility and affordable rent.

Although he said he was winging it at the time, Chee knew even then that for his business to succeed, he would have to build a retail and distribution ecosystem. Fast forward a dozen years and Matchaya is now one of Singapore’s most established homegrown matcha brands, with two outlets at home and four in Indonesia. More significantly, Chee estimates that Matchaya supplies about half of the matcha used by Singapore’s cafes, restaurants and food manufacturers. 

“The most important part then was to source directly from tea farms in Japan,” he recalled. Introductions from friends and several cold emails eventually yielded a contact in Shizuoka. One meeting led to another, and Chee soon built his own network of matcha suppliers, learning from them about the nuances of matcha production, quality and culture.

MATCHA AS A NETWORK

As his nascent business chugged along, Chee noticed more customers coming into the store to buy matcha powder. “Which prompted us to ask if they were cafe or restaurant owners,” he said. “It turns out they were and when we asked where they got their matcha from, they would say, my coffee supplier, my chocolate supplier or even their sugar supplier.”

Filling that gap in the market was easy. “We were already bringing matcha in at our best cost price and I saw an opportunity for collaboration and also free marketing.” And with that, Matchaya’s distribution business arm was born. 

Supplying competitors with the very product on which you are building your brand might seem like a fool’s errand. Yet that is precisely what has set Matchaya apart in today’s sea of matcha cafes – and helped keep it afloat during tougher times.

“At the end of the day, a business is run by numbers,” Chee said, adding that distribution helped Matchaya weather the ups and downs in its retail business, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Rather than portraying ourselves as someone who wants to be a gatekeeper for matcha supply, we now look at matcha as a form of network. We love our friends and competitors because we still feel that this is crucial for our ecosystem.”

THE REDISTRIBUTION OF MATCHA

The global appetite for matcha has resulted in a shortage that has sent prices sharply upwards. Unlike some crops, tea destined for matcha cannot simply be planted in response to a spike in demand and harvested the following season. “Typically, the growing cycle takes about three years,” Chee explained. He said prices from some Japanese tea suppliers have risen by as much as three and a half times in the past few years. “But I think supply will stabilise in the next two to three years.”

As Japanese matcha prices have risen, Chinese producers have stepped up production, offering a wider range of grades at lower prices. The powdered-tea tradition from which matcha developed originated in China, but it was in Japan that matcha evolved into the form we know today.

“What’s interesting right now is that a lot of Chinese matcha stores have set up in Singapore and they don’t just carry their network and operations across, but also their culture,” Chee added. “People have gotten a taste of Chinese matcha, and at their good price point, I think they are here to stay.”

Matchaya has begun offering Chinese matcha to commercial clients, allowing them in turn to offer lower prices to their customers. “We’ve come to realise that we can’t just focus on the mass premium,” Chee said. “The masses are typically where you also have to capture the market.”

That said, Matchaya serves only Japanese matcha at its retail stores. Consumers, Chee noted, have become increasingly discerning, moving from simply wanting to drink matcha to wanting to know more about what is in their brew – including the tea’s origin, cultivar, harvest and quality. In response, Matchaya has moved further into speciality matcha, including what the industry commonly markets as ceremonial-grade matcha.

In March 2026, Matchaya unveiled its new flagship store in Tiong Bahru, which Chee calls “Matchaya 3.0” – a more polished, experiential expression of the brand. Customers can watch their matcha being prepared at the counter, while the menu includes novelty drinks such as the Whimsical Cloud Series, featuring matcha mixed with coconut water and topped with sea salt foam and a cloud of cotton candy. The store also has a dining area serving Japanese-inspired dishes, including rice burgers designed to complement the tea programme.

All this is Chee’s now keenly honed seismometer at work. Having spent the last 12 years grinding against the shifting grounds of the matcha market, he is wise to its constant rumblings and ready to roll when the next fault line appears.