Climate tech eco footwear

Of the 125M tonnes of solid waste generated every year in Africa, 70–80% of this waste is recyclable. Every day in Africa over 1 million used car tires are dumped in landfills and end up taking up space from inhabited, vulnerable neighborhoods, it takes up to 80 years for a rubber tire to decompose while polluting water, air & even become nurseries for mosquitoes that carry diseases.

However, the continent recycles only 4% of this total waste according to the United Nations. Used tires are among the most problematic solid wastes due to the fact that they are non-biodegradable and they pose a serious environmental threat. Recycling used car tires can reduce waste, conserve natural resources, create new jobs, and provide cheaper raw materials for various industries.

Also, in Africa the youth make up to 60% of the total unemployment rate, women are affected.

Furthermore we look at the problem in two lenses:

• From the consumer perspective: People are currently paying a higher price for eco footwear which forces them to consume fast fashion in a linear manner.
• From the community perspective people are dumping the used car tires in a very problematic manner that is destroying the environment for vulnerable families.

To tackle these issues, the company crafts 4R technology solutions of recovering, reducing, recycling and reusing used car tires to make functional and fashionable footwear for conscious consumers. We are also equipping the youth with practical and soft skills to increase their potential of securing jobs or even creating small businesses.

• Over 120M young Africans are unemployed and they have no income or education to back them on the labor market. They have no access to formal education or even technical vocation training. UZURI K&Y 4R technology offers a new path of acquiring skills in the circular economy which will lead to becoming industry workers or even creating their small business. 

So far, over a 1200 people have been trained of which 70% are women, they were impacted through skills and employment. The core purpose of introducing our training program that targets young people and women in our community; is that we believe that practical knowledge increases their chances for real life jobs or even micro business creations that bring daily income and hence improving the lifestyle of families.  This program has birthed 10 businesses created by graduates.

• Our direct customers are people seeking to shop responsibly across the world. The buy Eco fashion and understand that they are contributing to climate action across the globe. The current market is worth US &7B and it is growing at a pace of 24%. 

We have a small team of young people who are skilled through constant training and lead by the founders. Kevine & Ysolde met at the university while studying creative designs & environmental built. "When we met, we engaged in deep conversations, shared life perspectives and dreamed a lot of the future. It was incredible how our desires converged to be a common vision. We shared this passion for the environment we live in, and we wanted very much to create jobs for our community."

Bothe founders recently graduated from from Stanford university Business Development with Stanford Seed Transformation Program. 

Kevine Kagirimpundu obtained her degree in Creative Designs & environmental Built and attained her leadership skills from world class entrepreneurship accelerators such as Nasdaq entrepreneur canter. In 2019, Africa Business Heroes named her among top 10 business heroes creating change across Africa. She has recently graduated from INSEAD.

Ysolde Shimwe developed her product design and management skills from various courses. She has a particular interest in designing sustainable solutions, where projects are taken from concepts to tangible products while being environmentally conscious. She was named the most promising Business woman by KORA coaching in 2016 and recently graduated.

Our solution is currently serving 28000 customers who consumes our products and more than 1300 people who benefit from training, employment and recycling. 

Our team is applying for MIT in order share our story and gain further visibility for our solution on a global stage. This opportunity will allow our team to also gain access to a huge network of entrepreneurs with whom we shall share our experience in return of learning from theirs. 

We approach business in an interconnected manner where the final consumer plays a role in building communities while the people at the BoP are equipped with knowledge and technology to improve their skills and participate in changing their own environments through waste management. We are creating new ways of social entrepreneurship where the people from underprivileged communities take initiatives to the global stage. From our training program, 10  micro & small businesses have been started and are also creating new jobs. 

The overall objective is to improve our production capacity, promote and sell our products to clients across the region. This objective will be achieved through the following two specific objectives:

These three objectives will be achieved through the following activities.

• We plan to expand our training program which aims to transfer practical & soft skills in shoemaking to youths using our proprietary software EdTech. This program will reach 2500 in the next 24 months through training an job creation. 
• We plan to invest in machines and tools to ease and speed some of the processes to increase our production capacity. This will enable us to produce quality and a diverse range of eco-footwear products and recycle more tires to produce other products such as furniture and construction materials. We shall produce 300000 pairs of eco footwear for a global market. 
• We plan to use different approaches to marketing including e-commerce and storytelling through digital, content management, and social media. Further, we will create a line of stores owned by third-party partners who will operate under the leadership of UZURI K&Y. With our brand book guidelines, we are strengthening systems that will be adopted by franchisees. The retail business is set to improve the experience of customers by viewing our products physically and getting a customized experience. We shall establish ourselves in 4 different markets and gain access to international customers via ecommerce & new B2B channels. 

Some of the KPIs measured are:

• Workers income
• Recycled tires
• Carbon emissions
• Change in lifestyles of beneficiaries
• Company Revenue & profit

Our solution intend to connect two worlds through climate change. Our 4R technology is used by the youth and women from less privilege communities. They learn shoe manufacturing and produce for a worlds that desperately need to change their consumption behavior by adopting a circular way of consuming. 

From our production facility, we are transferring practical skills to the youth and women in order to tackle wasted car tires issues, the company crafts viable solutions to recycle used car tires to make functional and fashionable footwear for conscious consumers. The brand has developed advanced techniques to hand make footwear from its own production facility. So far 120 jobs have been created. 

Finally,  we reach our customers via our own retail stores in Rwanda and Kenya while we also use ecommerce to reach international customers.

We have developed a basic 4R technology footwear company of recovering, reducing , recycling, and reusing wasted car tires to produce shoes. We exist to solve the environmental pollution and unemployment among the youth. We add value by producing high quality and affordable Eco footwear for a global market of conscious consumers.

In total, our team is made of 70% women, this approach was done intentionally from the beginning as it was clear that women have less opportunities in the work place. We have developed a gender policy that outlines the principals of the organization towards gender with guiding principles to ensure equality and inclusivity. 

UZURI K&Y as a company, ensures the implementation of the guiding
principles on gender and inclusivity inside and outside the company and
addresses existing gender issues. The company ensures the participation of
women and men in all activities, production, budgeting, implementation and
decision-making and at all levels. UZURI uses gender sensitive language in
its communication.
UZURI staff are encouraged to interact with respect and tolerance of
differences and always seek to be inclusive in all consultation and decision making processes. The company focuses on building the staff capacity in
gender & inclusion including communication, self-awareness, confidence
building and women-in-leadership.

Our business model is defined as external where the social and business activities are separate and may or may not be related to the mission of the organization. Our consumers pay an average price of US $30 per pair of shoes and it is costing us $18 to make a pair of Eco footwear. 

UZURI K&Y will ensure financial sustainability of the project to ensure the project goes beyond the grant funding period via three important approaches:

• Financial sustainability: With a well trained team we shall ensure a steady flow of funds by generating revenue to maintain and continue our work. In the next 3 years we aim to generate a pipeline of $7,000,000 dollars
with a retail/franchise & ecommerce approach.
• Institutional Sustainability: The systems that will be put in place during the project implementation will be maintained. A diverse range of tools in production, finance, marketing and Human
resources will be utilized to develop digital and optimized systems.
• Fundraising: We shall continue to engage with institutional
investors to create a long lasting fundraising flow while ensuring profitability. So far the company has US $702000 from the following from investors:

• US $250k from BESTSELLER /lead investor on  this round/ Due diligence conducted / term sheet signed 
• US $432k matching grant by ATI, a USAID program equivalent to36% of the total investment required.  ATI: Africa Trade & investment (ATI)
• US $20K SAFE investment by independent Angels investors

UZURI K&Y will have in place teams with designated leaders consisted of a team that will be vexed in marketing, social media, communication, data collection and will be responsible for thinking sustainability within and outside of the project. In addition to that there will be a strong leadership team that will ensure that we do not drift from the mission, vision and the core objectives of this project. The teams will ensure sustainability of the project by adopting 6 key fundamentals during and after
implementation as elaborated below:

• Create and develop partnership work

The team will strive to Involve others who have the same goals and affected by similar problems, these are partners who can lead essentially to developing supportive services with minimal resources. It will identify the strengths of partners and build on them for maximum benefit to service users. For example UZURI will work with Rwanda Ply techniques to carry out industrial trainings to ensure trained labor for the production

• Product diversification

In order to mitigate fluctuations of products demands due to seasons the team will introduce a variety of new footwear to cater for cold seasons. The start of the project will be marked by the development and the launch of a range of closed-toe styles while within one year the teams will launch an ecofriendly sneaker that will serve both female and male demographics.

• Market development

Further, we intend to boost and revamp our e-commerce marketing and establish additional 2 stores in Rwanda; 2 in Nairobi Kenya; 2 in Luanda Angola; 2 in Accra Ghana; and 2 in Tanzania by 2025.