PIRAN ASCI / KORO ENTREPRENEUR

Piran Asci helped build KoRo, now a €252m food business.

From customer to shareholder and managing director: Asci helped build KoRo from Berlin. The food company reported €252 million in revenue in 2025, after he had stepped back from operations.

By Drift · 14 October 2026 · Global Laureates

Photo: Melanie Greim / © KoRo Handels GmbH. Free editorial press image, 2022. Portrait displayed as a crop; original photograph preserved.

Piran Asci knew KoRo first as a customer. He became a working student, bought into the company and helped build its food business from Berlin. In 2025, after his departure from day-to-day management, KoRo recorded €252 million in revenue.

From customer to owner

In its 2021 profile of Asci, KoRo described how he joined in 2014 and later sold his Yu-Gi-Oh! card collection to buy out an owner. He became managing director at 22. He helped build the company alongside Constantinos Calios; Florian Schwenkert joined the management team in 2020.

Asci described his family background in a 2022 interview with digital kompakt. His grandparents came to Germany as guest workers, and his parents followed as teenagers. He grew up celebrating both Turkish and German traditions. He studied mathematics before committing to the food business.

How the business worked

KoRo built its range around nuts, nut butters, dried fruit and other foods, often in large packs with simple packaging. Its company description explains the commercial approach: shortening supply chains and selling through its own online shop. The brand subsequently expanded into physical retail.

KoRo reported €62 million in total revenue for 2021 in the headline figures of its August 2022 expansion announcement. By that announcement, it was active in 18 European countries. That provides a dated measure of the business during Asci’s management tenure.

The company after his departure

Asci announced his departure from operations in 2024, while remaining a shareholder. The €252 million figure is KoRo’s 2025 turnover, recorded in investor Triodos Investment Management’s first-quarter 2026 report. It describes the business after he stepped back, built further by the team that followed.

A June 2026 announcement by logistics partner Nagel-Group also reports €252 million in 2025 revenue and around 15,000 German retail locations. The Berlin business now serves both online customers and retailers across Europe.

GLOBAL LAUREATES / 2026