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Published Date: June 22, 2021 ,Last modified on June 29th, 2021

KAESA

KAESA designs sustainable handbags and accessories that balance beautiful aesthetics with function.

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Company Intro Video

Highlights

From 2020 ~ 2021, we have achieve the following:
  • Secured new manufacturing partners
  • Partnerships with 55 Brand and 30ml boutiques
  • Launched 3 collections of products: Aria, VLLR, SS 2021: Desserto & Sienna
  • Sold 200 products
  • Sales of 20 million KRW
  • Featured in The Korea Times in December 2021
  • Interviewed by the EO Youtube Channel, one of the biggest startup channels in Korea
  • Accepted into the Accepted into the Global Startups Live Commerce Program, an opportunity to promote and sell our brand and products on NAVER Shopping Live

Company Overview

We provide a solution to global environmental issues by creating products made from sustainable materials, such as vegan and plant based leathers and upcycled materials from fashion and construction. Our products combine three elements: Design + Function + Sustainability.

Inspired by architecture & fashion, our products are a blend of rich colors, materials and textures. Just like an interior space that is both a balance of beautiful aesthetics and function.

With our products, customers look stylish, organized, and feel good about contributing to a cleaner environment.

Problem Overview

Leather Manufacturing  When I first began my company, I was utilizing animal leather in our products. As I developed it, I learned leather manufacturing is extremely harmful to the environment. It uses millions of chemicals during the manufacturing process, which eventually pollutes the air, water and soils. It also uses enormous amounts of water and resources.  Fast Fashion & Construction Waste  There is also a huge amount of waste that is generated and sent to the landfills every day from fast fashion and the construction industry. During my research, I learned that one truck full of clothing is sent to the landfills every second. And construction waste will double by 2025 globally. These statistics blew my mind, I strongly feel that we need to do something about these problems.

Solution Overview

Vegan Leather & Plant Based Materials  Our solution to the use of animal leathers is to use vegan leather and leather made from plants such as cactus and pineapple leaves. Both these materials have a low environmental impact and are sustainable. Cactus leather is also biodegradable. And unlike animal leather, vegan leather is a synthetic material made from textiles and therefore is a much more eco-friendly material, it uses much less water and resources during its production.  Upcycled Materials  In addition to utilizing sustainable materials, we plan to reduce waste that ends up in the landfills. Our solution is to reclaim these materials and repurpose them into our products. Inspirations  Inspired by architecture & fashion, our products are a blend of rich colors, materials and textures. Just like an interior space that is both a balance of beautiful aesthetics and function. With our products, customers look stylish, organized, and feel good about contributing to a cleaner environment.

Go-to-Market Strategy and Business Model

Revenue Model & Online / Offline Sales Secure Domestic Markets We are currently selling our products in Korea on our Naver Smartstore. We’re also selling on two online and offline boutiques: 55 Brand and 30ml. Secure Overseas Markets  Internationally we are selling our products on our KAESA website and Etsy. We plan to expand our sales channels by opening an Amazon Brand Shop. Go-to-Market Plan: Target Market & Marketing Strategy We are targeting B2C and B2B markets.  For our B2C market, we have three types of people:
  • Eco-conscious, vegetarian, vegan
  • Business professional
  • Fashion conscious
We’ve promoted our brand and products using social media such as IG and FB. We’ve held zoom launch parties and several IG Live shows, one of which we partnered with 55 Brand. We’ve also held Pop-up Events with a made in Seoul shoe brand, KADA:KUDU as well as a few Open Market Events in Seoul. Both events were very successful, we generated new sales and acquired new followers on our social media. This next year, we have three strategies to market and promote our brand and products: The first way is to Partner with influencers and celebrities who are interested in sustainability and fashion. The second is to build our own KAESA community: to connect and share, and to become a trusted resource in the sustainability community. Our goal is to turn customers into brand advocates. We also plan to develop a brand ambassador program. The third way is to connect with our customers by interacting and communicating with them on our website and our social media. During our product development phase, we plan to ask our members feedback on the product designs and what they desire in a product. This will help us to learn more about our customers and to develop products customers will want and use. For our B2B market, we are targeting fashion and eco-friendly online sales platforms such as: W Concept and Unicorngoods.com. Our goals is to be selling on these platforms within the next 6 months. We also plan to be featured in online magazines such as: ethicalelephant.com  and livekindly.co

Competitive Landscape

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Founders' Bio

Amy Chu

CEO & Creative Director

Amy has a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, USA. She worked in the Interior Architecture field in New York City for over ten years with companies such as Gensler & Vocon. She has extensive design, technical & project management experience, managing every aspect of projects from post design to construction. Major projects include: UBS & Colgate. She also has Jewelry & Accessory Design experience. - Interior Architecture - Jewelry Design: Designed & Made Custom Handmade Jewelry - Handbag Design: Top 5 Finalist in The Independent Handbag Designer Awards, an International Handbag Design Competition - Designed & Created Eco-Friendly Foldable Bags - Provided Design Services to Develop a Solar Panel Backpack As the Creative Director, Amy is managing and overseeing the design, manufacturing and production of all Kaesa products. She is also overseeing the daily operations and running the business.

Term Sheet

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  • About KAESA
  • Website : kaesa.co
  • Location : Korea
  • Founded year : 03/07/2017
  • Company size : 1 people
  • Markets: e-commercefashionKorean Startup