Kelowna-based Vejii becomes the world's largest online vegan marketplace

All of a sudden, Kelowna-based Vejii is the biggest online vegan marketplace on the planet.

Started in March 2020 by entrepreneurs Kory Zelickson and Darren Gill, Vejii started selling vegan, plant-based and sustainable-living foods and products online in the US early this year at ShopVejii.com.

In April, it also started selling online in Canada.

In October, Vejii acquired major US competitor Vegan Essentials, which was a huge vegan online store.

Vejii has combined its online store with Vegan Essential's in https://shopvejii.com/, combined subscriber lists and consolidated logistics, marketing and buying to create the largest online plant-based marketplace in the world.

Earlier this month, Vejii went public on the Canadian Securities Exchange (symbol: VEJI) with an initial share offering of 35 cents.

Stock on Thursday was trading at about 28.5 cents.

"Typically, you see a new stock hover around its initial share offering price for a while while awareness and traction build," said Vejii co-founder and president Darren Gill.

"Our long-term goal is to build out this business with our unique offering as a marketplace for vegan products -- the Amazon of the plant-based world."

Vejii itself doesn't make vegan or plant-based foods or sustainable-living products.

What it does is provide an online platform for vegan manufactures to list their products for sale to a North American-wide audience.

While only a few percent of North Americans are fully vegan, Vejii sees its market as much larger as vegetarians, flexitarians and those seeking healthy and green products will also purchase at ShopVejii.com.

Vegan, plant-based and sustainable manufactures can use Vejii two ways.

The first is to simply list products for sale on ShopVejii.com and when orders come in the company is notified and sends out the product to the consumer themselves.

The second is to list products for sale on ShopVejii.com and have those items stocked at one of Vejii's centralized warehouses in Surrey, Texas or Wisconsin to be shipped out via UPS or FedEx when orders roll in.

Vejii makes its money by taking a 10, 12.5 or 15% of every sale, depending on the vendor's size and volume.

Small businesses are given the preferential rate of 10% to help them get established.

"Almost every plant-based business in Canada has partnered with us," said Gill.

"We're the go-to partner for plant-based brands to distribute. Our direct-to-consumer model gives us incredible leverage."

Vejii's headquarters is in the Innovation Centre in downtown with seven staff.

Others work remotely and at the three warehouses.

Gill and Zelickson worked together at Vancouver-based Namaste Technologies, an e-commerce platform connecting patients with doctors prescribing cannabis-related solutions, before moving to Kelowna and setting up Vejii.