Vitae London

Idea

Introduction

Originating from the Latin word for ‘life’ Vitae is the fashion brand that looks to change lives.

Featuring water-resistant, stainless steel casing and high-quality movements, Vitae London watches are stylish and elegant. And they don’t just look good, they do good too.

For every watch sold, Vitae London provides a child in South Africa - who has been orphaned or lives in poverty - with the resources they need to access education.

At Vitae London we aim to empowering our customers and the children we support to dream without limits.

Intended impact

Our passion for social business was inspired by our founder's father. He grew up in a remote rural village in Ghana and was the first in his family line to learn to read and write. Now, a generation later, we get to innovate in one of the greatest cities in the world, London.

Following a trip to South Africa we saw first-hand the challenges that some children face in getting access to education. Food and clothing is important, but without education there is little chance of these children breaking out of the cycle of poverty that they find themselves trapped in.

From the profit on every watch sold, we provide two sets of school uniform or a solar light to children caught in poverty across Africa.

This not only gives us more of a drive for our business but it enables us to be more commercially viable in a large market. We've seen millennial customers and celebrities flock to us because our purpose resonates with them.

Substantial accomplishments to date

Key Milestones:
- Sold in over 30 countries.
- Distributed over 2,000 items of school uniform to children in need.

Our products are endorsed by:
- Richard Branson.
- Ava DuVernay.
- Emeli Sande.
- Phillip Schofield.
- Wretch 32.
- Pharrell Williams.
- Jordan Stephens (Rizzle Kicks).
- Michelle Williams (Destiny's Child).
- Romelu Lukaku.
- Amma Asante.
- Yinka Bokinni.

We've been featured in/on:
- CNN.
- BBC.
- MTV.
- TEDx.
- Red Magazine.
- Esquire.

Monetisation strategy

Vitae London has doubled down and focused on the key revenue stream for the business: online direct-to-consumer sales.

Our head of digital has a wide breadth of experience in optimising our cost per acquisition and has thus ensured we build a business model which allows a healthy margin for both business growth and social impact when selling direct to consumer online.

Use of proceeds

We're raising to do these 3 key things:

1) Make key hires

- Hiring full time Head of Marketing to set overall strategy, manage ad spend and optimise CPA.
- Hiring a head of Customer Services

2) Launch US fulfilment site

- Based on the data, how other brands that give back do in the States and our experience from holding pop-up shops in the US we see a massive potential to expand.
- We intend on onboarding someone to manage and fulfil our US orders with a goal of driving down shipping costs for customers and increase conversion rates.

3) Drive marketing channels

- Our blended customer acquisition cost leaves us with margin so we'll be testing this and pushing it to the limits.
- PR has also yielded brilliant results for us so we will be attributing a good amount of budget towards this.

Convertible Disclosure

The company entered into a convertible agreement with Backstage Capital on 15 April 2019 for a total investment of $100,000. This convertible will not convert on this round and has not been factored into the share price as the dilutive effect of the convertible in future rounds is unclear (see key terms below).

The key terms of the convertible are as follows:
Equity financing trigger: the convertible will convert on an equity round where the company is raising at least $2,000,000 through the issue of preferred shares. On conversion, Backstage Capital will receive the number of preferred shares equal to 5% of the company's fully diluted share capital post-investment.

IPO and change of control: If there is an IPO or change of control, Backstage Capital will be entitled to the greater of (i) 2x its investment or (ii) the amount payable to Backstage Capital if the convertible converted into ordinary shares immediately prior to the IPO or change of control at a valuation cap of $2,000,000. The payment in (ii) ranks senior to payment to holders of ordinary shares.

Liquidation event: If there is a liquidation or winding up of the company before conversion is triggered, Backstage Capital will be entitled to receive its subscription price immediately prior to such liquidation or wind up in preference to shareholders holding ordinary shares.

Longstop date: There is no longstop date on this convertible agreement.

Investor Perks