Highlights
- Kelechi Anyadiegwa pitched Zuvaa, her African-inspired clothing line, to the Sharks in episode 913.
- She started the company in 2014 with just $500 and quickly grew it to $2 million in sales.
- Zuvaa struggled with infrastructure and scalability, leading to its temporary shutdown.
Overview
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | Zuvaa |
| Founder | Kelechi Anyadiegwa |
| Industry | Fashion – African-inspired clothing |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Initial Investment | $500 |
| Sales | $2 million |
| Shark Tank Ask | $460,000 for 10% equity |
| Valuation | $4.6 million |
Kelechi Anyadiegwa introduces colorful African designs to the Sharks when she pitches Zuvaa, her clothing line, in Shark Tank episode 913. Anyadiegwa started the clothing line in 2014 with just $500. She’s of Nigerian descent and grew up wearing African designs. She kept getting compliments on her clothes, so she bought a domain and started selling African inspired clothing from all around the world.
Using her technical skills in online community building and her design education, she quickly built the company into a $2 million sales behemoth in a very short time. She even made the Forbes retail and eCommerce 30 under 30 list. Unfortunately for Ms. Anyadiegwa, the success was too much to bear.
The Zuvaa website redirects to a kind of public apology. It states the business “lacked the right infrastructure to support a growing company.” Problems with over projections, the company website, a small staff and paying sellers contributed to the complete failure of the business model. There are still limited items for sale on the site, but not as many as there were a year ago.
To her credit, she’s owning the problems and vows to re-emerge in 2018 with a new business model that will succeed without dragging the company down. Zuvaa clearly grew too big, too fast. Still, she feels the business has “barely scratched the surface on this opportunity.” She’ll likely be looking for a Shark’s help managing growth. Will a Shark design a deal for this unique clothing company?
Zuvaa Company Information
Video
Posts about Zuvaa on Shark Tank Blog
Zuvaa Shark Tank Recap
Kelechi enters the Shark Tank seeking $460,000 for 10% of her business. She has models in some of her clothing with her. After giving her presentation, she hands out samples to the Sharks. She turned a $500 investment into a company doing $2 million in sales in less than two years, which impresses the Sharks. She earns by charging designers a $50 monthly fee plus a 17% commission. She’s doing $50,000 in monthly revenue but she’s just breaking even.
Did Zuvaa Get A Deal?
Mark doesn’t like the valuation and he’s the first Shark out. Sara is next, also citing the valuation. Lori doesn’t think she needs an investment, she’s out. Daymond sees potential liability issues in vetting designers; he’s out. Kevin offers a $460,000 loan at 12% interest for 10% equity. Kelechi declines.
Zuvaa Shark Tank Update
The Shark Tank Blog constantly provides updates and follow-ups about entrepreneurs who have appeared on the Shark Tank TV show. This company was completely shut down before the original air date on 1/21/2018. A Twitter Group called “Zuvaa/Kelechi Pay Your Vendors” was established by vendors who were not paid by Zuvaa. They allege she owes them more than $300,000. This letter appeaered on the company website:
Dear Zuvaa Community, It’s been a tough year for Zuvaa. Really tough.Due to the overwhelming amount of love and support we received last year, we grew really fast, a little too fast. As we came into 2017 we lacked the right infrastructure to support a growing company. We had issues with our website, a really small 3 person staff, and issues with paying our sellers. We made over projections and our business model completely failed. As the Founder and CEO of Zuvaa, I take full responsibility for this failure. My over projections and eagerness to scale Zuvaa without the proper support led to many of our issues. But these are all growing pains and part of the journey of building a company. I failed a lot of people and I’m working to rectify our mistakes so they never happen again. We stopped operations in the marketplace some weeks ago to address these issues. Our goal is to re-emerge in the new year with a better website, a better business model and a better way of serving the thousands of customers worldwide that have helped Zuvaa get where we are. Zuvaa is a young company with a big vision. We have barely scratched the surface on this opportunity. The continent is vast and we can’t wait to show you all the beautiful artistry coming out of Africa. But in the interim, we need to fix our operations, grow our team and make sure we are providing the best experiences for you and the community in general. Can you help us? I’m crowdfunding ideas and suggestions on how to make Zuvaa better. Whether it is regarding our website, social media, pricing, etc – I want to hear what you think. These are the realities of growing a company and I appreciate everyone who has been patient and supportive with Zuvaa during this difficult time.
Any questions or concerns, feel reach out to me via email: kelechi@zuvaa.com.
Cheers,
Kelechi Anyadiegwu
Founder + CEO, Zuvaa
In February, 2020, she rebranded the business to Uju Media and said the site would be up and running in 2021. As of June, 2021, the website is up and functioning, though revenue information is as yet unavailable. As of November, 2022, the new site is promoting 3 clothing brands. By February, 2023, the company added a home decor brand. In April, 2023, the company website is gone and social media is too. Kelechi is keeping a very low profile.
See what else is new! View other businesses featured in this episode.
