Meet Kevin Abraham, a cultural entrepreneur and experience-driven community builder from Kochi. As the founder, curator, and self-proclaimed Chief Party Officer of Cuba Libre, Kevin has built one of the city’s most talked-about community-led event brands.
A former engineer who transitioned through consulting at PwC, strategy–operations–tech exposure at a leading global hedge fund, product management experience in the payments domain, Kevin now applies that same analytical thinking to something far more human by crafting experiences that bring people together.
Cuba Libre: How it all Started
Kevin talks about how “the first party was just twenty friends”, and he did it only for the joy of it.” The energy was infectious, and the response from that night encouraged him to do it again. By the next Diwali in 2024, the group had grown to 75. “People kept asking me when I would host the next one,” he recalls. That is when Kevin realised that he had unintentionally started something that had the potential to grow.
“We had a great turnout and a wholesome time,” he says, remembering how his network had expanded and people were pushing him to try something more ambitious. His Onam celebration in 2025 brought in 150+ guests and featured a chenda melam, a DJ set, and a lively mix of cultural elements. “That was Cuba Libre’s first official event,” he says. Soon after, he collaborated with Watson’s to host a Diwali party in 2025 and nearly 300 people attended.
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Brand Philosophy: Culture, Community, Ethics & Value
Cuba Libre is rooted in the belief that nightlife is not just entertainment; it is belonging, identity, and memory-making. Kevin has collaborated with carefully aligned lifestyle brands, including Highbury, integrating them authentically through curated storytelling, sampling, and content-led collaboration instead of transactional sponsorships.
Cuba Libre grew organically through trust and deep personal relationships rather than paid marketing. Kevin emphasises that, “My interactions with people at every event make a difference, and that trust and word-of-mouth are what drive people to come back.” He integrates lifestyle brands through thoughtful storytelling rather than transactional partnerships. He has also collaborated with Forty Degree Celsius Clothing to launch Cuba Libre merchandise using a print-on-demand model that eliminates the need for inventory.
Beyond Events: Building the Financial Layer for F&B
Leveraging his experience in digital payments, including working with Checkout.com and PayPal, he began noticing persistent inefficiencies in stored-value redemption, balance portability, visibility gaps, and flow-of-funds UX across India’s F&B and nightlife ecosystem. This led to his next initiative: a digital payments and value-management platform designed specifically for hospitality, focused on unifying wallet balances, reducing operational friction, improving guest journey visibility, and unlocking data-powered business intelligence for venues.
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The Road Ahead: Global Education & National Expansion
Kevin is now preparing to pursue his MBA at a Top-50 globally ranked university, where he aims to deepen expertise in product strategy, brand-experience leadership, business scaling models, and consumer-tech innovation. While he temporarily relocates for his degree, Cuba Libre will continue as a growing culture-driven brand, with Bangalore identified as the next expansion market because of its vibrant creative ecosystem, young working-professional demographic, and experiential-culture receptiveness.
Ultimately, he aims to evolve Cuba Libre into a multi-city experiential brand backed by proprietary payments technology, where culture, community, and commerce converge seamlessly. His North Star is to build experiences people remember, technology people trust, and brands people feel deeply connected to.
