Keexs

The journey of KEEXS started from the personal challenges of our Founder, Babajide Ipaye. Babajide was already wearing his Dad’s shoes at the age of 9 because he had very big feet, unfortunately he lost both parents at the tender age of 11 and ended up being brought up as an onlychild by his grandparents, uncles and aunties (he was literality raised
by a community).

As he grew older, so did his shoe size until it becamea US size 14 (Euro 48) – he constantly struggled to find shoes that fit in the choice of colors or designs that he wanted. . This is how KEEXS was born; Babajide decided to make his own shoes!

In order to achieve this, Babajide recognized the importance of acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge to do so. He subsequently travelled to the Netherlands in 2015 where he attended SLEM, an international innovation and training institute for footwear and leather industries, where he learned how to make sneakers from scratch – see video documentary above.

In 2015, Babajide then teamed up with friend Moyosore Olowo to raise funds for this new venture, through a global online crowdfunding campaign where they raised enough money to help bring this project to life.. His vision was simple, INSPIRE & GIVE BACK TO COMMUNITY - just like he was raised.

KEEXS IN THE MEDIA

Following this success of the crowdfunding campaign, KEEXS has been featured on numerous platforms such as Origin Africa (Madagascar), The African Fashion Week Nigeria, Heineken Lagos Fashion Week, Thomson Reuters, eNCA news, TV5Monde, Ebony Life TV, South African Fashion Week, Arise Fashion week, Tokyo Africa Fashion Week, CNN African Voices, Forbes Africa, Cosmopolitan, Yahoo Finance, Atlanta Black Star, Black mainstreet, Footwear and so much more just to mention a few. KEEXS is currently on a journey to scale her retail footprint in Nigeria and globally (with strategic touch points in South Africa , Kenya, United States, Europe and Japan)

Our CNN African Voices feature

CNN African Voices highlights the continent's most dazzling trendsetters who impact the lives of others while influencing areas such as fashion, music, film, sports, and technology. Episodes are aired globally on CNN International.

THE CHALLENGE

THE CHALLENGE - PEOPLE CARE, SO DO WE..

According to a Forbes , nearly two-thirds (63%) of surveyed global consumers want companies to take a stand on the social, cultural, environmental and political issues that they care about the most.

THE CHALLENGE - POVERTY AND CHILD EDUCATION CHALLENGES IN AFRICA
In 2021, there are 490 million people in Africa living in extreme poverty, or 36% of the total population. As a whole, Africa is not on target to meet it’s Sustainable Development Goal 1 – Eradicate Poverty by 2030.

According to UNESCO, if all students in low-income countries had just basic reading skills (nothing else), an estimated 171 million people could escape extreme poverty.

Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili highlighted that 9 out of 10 African children cannot read or learn numbers at the age of 10, and called the statistic an “economic disaster.”

THE CHALLENGE - AFRICANS IN DIASPORA AND AFRICANS

The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa.

 They has contributed in important ways to the economic development of many countries, as well as to social, cultural and political innovations of global significance but unfortunately have very weak ties to the motherland and to the 1.2 billion Africans on the continent.

OUR SOLUTION:
KEEXS products tell stories to INSPIRE and hep our customers ( OUR TRIBE) connect to their ROOTS whilst also GIVING BACK ( through sustainable social projects).

The mission at KEEXS is based on a strategy of Quadruple Bottom Line (4BL)= People, Planet, Profit, and PURPOSE

Our definition of PURPOSE at KEEXS refers to the overarching reason we exist, why we are doing what we are doing - our essence, soul, or spirit. This is what truly sets us apart from all other organizations or brands.

We are FOR THE TRIBE, BY THE TRIBE

Our Tribe at KEEXS is not bound by geography, pedigree, race or religion. Instead, our Tribes at KEEXS is bound by similar belief or passion

Our connection to our Tribe drives our culture at KEEXS. Through The KEEXS Tribe Leader Program”  we identify and work with exceptional members of our Tribe around the world to create a positive change in their communities through ISR ( individual social responsibility) .This can include volunteering time, giving money, and standing up for issues that affect their environment or the rights of others.

These select Tribe leaders are exceptional people in their domain who are interested in connecting to their roots and also empowering others. We activate these connections through story-telling, open innovation and collaborative social projects.

OUR TRIBE LEADERS WORK WITH US TO GIVE BACK
A percentage of sales from co-creations are used to fund some of the social changes they wish to see in their various communities and this is sustained through repeat purchases.

OUR BUSINESS MODEL 

We have a dynamic product design team at KEEXS that also embraces a Tribe Led co-creation approach. This allows us to ensure that we only provide products that our Tribe want.

OUR PRODUCTS

Custom KEEXS
Over the years , we have given out Tribe at KEEXS the opportunity to have their own voice by expressing it through our customization services. We have also had to opportunity to collaborate with Corporate brands such as Pepsi, Johnny Walker, First Bank and SABMiller

KEEXS started as a sneaker company in 2015 . The COVID pandemic in 2020 drove more fitness habits as well as athleisure based fashion trends based the globe . We also got a lot of feedback from our Tribe and spent extensive time and resources towards product development in 2020/2021. In 2022 KEEXS will be offering a full range of athleisure  and lifestyle based products beyond the sneakers we were originally know for.

THE MARKET

KEEXS currently has $4.2 billion addressable market opportunity within a $246 billion global market.

• Global shoe market of $246 billion ( 19 billion units / 2 pairs per person with 3-5% growth CAGR 2021-2025). Part of this constitutes 140+ million Africans in diaspora and 1.2billion Africans on the continent
• $4.2 billion US addressable market opportunity (60 million individuals in target market with an Avg of 1 fashion sneaker purchase per year | Sneaker average selling price is $70 | 60 million x $70 = $4.2 billion ). Approximately 70% of our target group are African Americans.  The rest of our sales we also anticipate to come from across the world.

KEEXS Growth Target is $20 million sales in 5 years in the US .This equates to approximately 240,000 units of products per year, which can help us create up to  1,000 jobs in Africa and 50 jos in the US and around the world by 2026.

Forward-looking projections cannot be guaranteed.

GO TO MARKET STRATEGY

At KEEXS our go-to-market strategy combines utilizing outside resources, to deliver our unique value proposition to our Tribe in order to achieve our competitive advantage.

TRACTION AT KEEXS

From a humble beginning of a $20,000 kictsarter crowdfunding campaign in 2015 we have achieved the following traction

ROADMAP

Our primary goal over the next 24 months is to raise adequate capital, rapidly scale our sales volume and eventually move towards a Series A round.

FUNDING NEEDS

The primary objective on being on Wefunder is to raise capital required to scale our operations and achieve our mission of 4BL ( People, Planet, Profit and PURPOSE)

OUR COMPETITION

Whilst we cannot ignore our competition, our approach at KEEXS is to lead with what our Tribe or customer wants and build products and services around them. Below is a simple comparison of how we differ from our competitors.

OUR TEAM

YOUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT - THROUGH WEFUNDER SAFE CONTRACT

All investors get a Wefunder based SAFE ( Simple Agreement for Future Equity) investment contract at $6.9m valuation cap if RESERVATION is made before 31st Dec 2021 or $7.9m valuation if investment is made after 31st Dec 2021

• These will convert your investment to stock at a later date if the company raises a "priced round" from major investors, most often venture capitalists. At this point, you are a shareholder owning equity, and you earn a return if the value of that stock goes up over time, and you are able to sell it.

• KEEXS is currently part of a global business Accelerator called Newchip who have also offered us a $250,000 warrant option based on achieving a priced round. Our goal at KEEXS after this fund raise is to aggressively ramp up revenue and then go for a "priced round" called SERIES A on or before November, 2023
  

YOUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT - SUPPORT KEEXS SOCIAL MISSION

The KEEXS mission is based on quadruple bottom-line or 4BL strategy (People , Planet, Profit & Purpose). Invest in a company that is passionate about DOING GOOD whilst also delivering on positive ROI to her investors.

Forward-looking projections cannot be guaranteed

YOUR RETURN ON INVESTMENT - THE ALLBIRDS CASE STUDY

In order to explain this investment opportunity potential better we have decided to use competitor Allbirds as a case study. This sustainable shoe company since its founding in 2015, has raised $253 million in five rounds of funding:

• Seed Round: March 2016, $2.3 million, valued at $7.3 million
• Series A: July 2016, $7.4 million, valued at $32.25 million
• Series B: July 2017, $18.5 million, valued at $367.7 million
• Series C: October 2018, $50 million, valued at $1.4 billion
• Series D: December 2019, $75 million, valued at $1.73 billion
• Series E: September 2020, $100 million, led by Franklin Templeton, at $1.7 billion

Allbirds raised more than $300 million in its initial public offering on Wednesday 3rd November 2021, with shares surging 91% on the first day of trading to give the company a valuation of $4.1 billion

WHAT IS WEFUNDER AND WHY ?

Wefunder is a crowdfunding service which connects startups with investors online. Wefunder uses a provision in the US 2012 JOBS Act which allows unaccredited investors to purchase equity in early stage private companies. it also regulated by the SEC ( United states Securiteis and Exchange Comission). Think of it like pre-IPO investing.

KEEXS is an organization that is keen on open innovation and global growth. We believe that taking this approach of fundraising will give our global Tribe the opportunity to invest and be a part of our success story.

JOIN US IN MAKING AN IMPACT

Our name KEEXS comes from the a play of 2 words;

Our logo at KEEXS represents a fist or "fist bump". It also represents the impact we want to create from Africa to the rest of the world. 

Our RED represents youth, passion, giving & creativity.

INVEST IN KEEXS towards making a global impact whilst achieving a positive ROI on your investment.