Help Lola Ade Jewelry Scale!

The Mission

Jewelry is poetry—that is the vision behind my brand Lola Ade, a Los Angeles based jewelry line inspired by color and culture. Lola Ade (which means “wealthy crown” in the Nigerian language Yoruba) carries a handmade and curated mix of minimalistic and statement pieces at reasonable price points.

Over a decade ago, I taught myself how to make jewelry because I did not see any Black-owned jewelry lines in the mainstream media that were carrying beautiful costume and fine jewelry pieces infused with culture and displayed on diverse models. Because of the lack of representation, from day one Lola Ade focused on showcasing jewelry on Black and Brown models regularly. 

The Market Size/Opportunity

The global jewelry market is estimated to be over $200 billion dollars. Despite the impact of the pandemic on brick and mortar stores, the future of online jewelry stores is looking bright, and Lola Ade needs the funding necessary to go to the next level.

Why Seek Funding?

With the push to support Black-owned businesses, Lola Ade has been fortunate to receive press and publicity organically. However, with increased publicity came rapid sales. At one point, the business grew over 20,000 percent from the previous year! While many would dream of such a business growth spurt, I simply did not have the manpower, resources or capital to effectively scale for the demand. At the moment, I am trying to maintain relationships with three major retailers that are interested in carrying Lola Ade, simply because I am not in a position right now to sign agreements and launch in their stores. In order to scale with the opportunities currently presented, the resource that I need the most is capital. I am uniquely qualified to pull this off, because I actually have connections at the moment with retailers that are interested in my business. 

Receiving funding would help to jumpstart the next level of my business, specifically the funds and strategy I need for an increase in inventory to sign with at least one major retailer, more hours for my small part-time team to help with retail account management, processing wholesale/retail orders, designing packaging, managing the onboarding process for new and existing accounts, and customer service. 

Whether you help fund or share the campaign, we appreciate your support for Lola Ade!