Why KRATED exists
For years, the way you got direct-from-China prices in Lagos was to know somebody. You DM'd a vendor. You paid into a personal account. You watched a WhatsApp group fill up. You took it on faith that the goods would arrive and that the person you sent money to wouldn't disappear.
The model works — when it works. When it doesn't, there's no paper trail, no policy, no recourse. The good vendors carry the weight of every bad vendor in the category. New buyers have nothing to grip onto except a feeling about a person they've never met.
We thought the answer wasn't to make trust smaller. It was to make it bigger and more legible. To put the proof on the page. To publish the refund SLA where everyone can see it. To make the container fill in front of you. That's the product.
Who's behind it
I'm Aranwaolu. I've been building product in Lagos for years — recently across maritime logistics, transport intelligence, and now consumer infrastructure. KRATED is the consumer surface I wanted to exist as a buyer myself: somewhere you can spend ₦50k upfront on goods that take 60 days to arrive and not feel like you're gambling.
The team is small on purpose. A solo operator close to every batch right now, with a NAGAFF-affiliated clearing broker, a Guangzhou-side QC partner, and a network of Lagos micro-influencers who've agreed to try the first drop publicly. If we can't make 60 customers happy with our first batch, we don't deserve the next one.
What we promise
- The price you see is the price you pay.Product, shipping, duty, clearing, margin — itemised. No surprises on arrival. FX locked at checkout with a transparent buffer.
- We post the proof.Supplier screenshots. Factory walkthroughs. Packing photos. Bill of lading. Vessel tracking. Clearing receipts. Hub arrival. Every batch, every stage.
- If we fail to deliver, your money is back.Batch doesn't fill? We message you for your bank account and wire 100% back within 48 hours of getting your details. Bank transfer — not a card reversal.
- We curate; we don't stock everything.We list ~14 items per drop. Items that don't move get dropped from the next season. We're not a marketplace; we're a careful catalogue.
- Every batch is permanent.Past batches stay on the site forever — full timeline, full proof trail, full outcome. We can't bury bad ones, so we have to ship good ones.
Where we go
Phase 1 is Lagos only, one batch at a time, focused on baby / kitchen / home goods that avoid NAFDAC and SONCAP friction. Phase 2 adds Abuja, Port Harcourt, the export side, and the first social referral mechanic. Phase 3 adds Germany and UAE as source countries and a B2B reseller layer.
We'll get there one container at a time. Honest containers.