By Kat Melheim

Step inside Kafiex cafes and you’re immediately immersed in color and sound. Vibrant murals cover the walls. Expressive music from around the world fills the air. The pastry case is stocked with conchas, croissants and other global flavors. Signature coffee drinks are sweetened with house-made Mexican chocolate syrup, a thick caramel sauce called cajeta sourced from Mexico, and other seasonal flavors. You can even order a siphon coffee—an uncommon sight in cafes nowadays, but it’s a nod to an early spark of inspiration for Seidy and Matthew Selivanow, founders and owners of Kafiex in Vancouver, Washington.

Kafiex isn’t your average specialty cafe. It’s an outward expression of Seidy and Matthew’s passions—their backgrounds, their travels, their values, and their belief that coffee is a bridge between cultures. From featuring coffees grown by producers they’ve visited and built friendships with to the way they’ve designed career paths for baristas based on Matthew’s past work experience, every choice at Kafiex is rooted in context. Kafiex is Seidy and Matthew’s story brought to life and shared with pride and passion.

And their story doesn’t just live within the cafe walls. It branches out through intentional relationships, involvement in diverse coffee events, and a cultivated support system. This perspective and network have propelled Kafiex from its early days as a weekend hobby to operating two cafes, an expanded roastery and an education space. This authentic pursuit of passion is what makes Kafiex Roast Magazine’s 2026 Micro Roaster of the Year.

ORIGINS AND GROWTH

Kafiex grew from small beginnings and big dreams. Through traveling together, Seidy and Matthew developed a passion for seeing the world and wanted to find a way to sustain the lifestyle. “We just saved money and spent it all on traveling. And then we’re like, ‘We need a passive income job where we don’t have to do anything, but we can make money to travel,’” Matthew recalls. They began developing the idea in 2016, long before they knew how hands-on a roasting business would be. Matthew had already started roasting at home as a hobby, gifting the roasted coffee to friends and family. After receiving positive feedback and encouragement from loved ones, paired with their goal of creating passive income to fund their travels, Matthew and Seidy started selling beans at the Vancouver Farmer’s Market in 2017. After endless hours of brainstorming and researching available trademarks and domain names, they chose the name Kafiex. “Kafi,” which means coffee in Swahili, is a nod to their love for global travel and coffee’s African heritage; they added “ex” because it sounded futuristic.

As their following at the farmers market grew, they honed their skills with roast profile development, packaging and customer loyalty. “Every week people asked when we were opening a cafe,” Matthew says. “We didn’t plan it, but the demand was constant.”

When they opened their first cafe in 2018, they faced significant hurdles. They were self-financed, and they had to figure out equipment, hire their first employees, and create a space that reflected who they were. Those early days meant long hours—late nights roasting on a 2-kilo Sonofresco air roaster, waking early to open the shop, and learning barista skills and green buying on the fly. But the community’s enthusiasm and their growing passion sustained them.

From there, the business grew organically, increasing roasting capacity with a Diedrich IR-12 in late 2018, opening a second cafe in April 2021, and launching an expanded roastery and training facility in fall 2025. The new facility will allow them to further scale their roasting capacity as well as educational opportunities for staff, the local community, and the wider coffee industry.

Matthew and Seidy’s journey has taken a very different turn from what they originally envisioned as a way to earn passive income to fund their travels. “We were so wrong,” Matthew says. “It became our life.” And they wouldn’t have it any other way. Over the years, Matthew and Seidy have ventured further, created deeper connections, and become more involved in the global coffee community than they ever expected.

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