Our Story

Yenaé (pronounced as Ye.Nay) is an online, high fashion jewelry brand influenced by the rich culture and heritage of Africa. We take shoppers on a journey inside Africa through our exquisite jewelry designs that fuse deeply rooted and diverse cultures with a twist of modern appeal. Beyond creating exquisite jewelry, we focus on telling an organically African story to change the perception and narrative of the continent at large, to showcase Africa in a positive light. This can be seen through our jewelry designs, gift ready packaging, and accompanying note cards that have the design inspiration story, which we obtain by working with historians and storytellers to learn about and share the stories. 

We are two black female-owned entrepreneurs, who started as high school friends in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. After a similar journey through life, a move around the globe to the US, we co-founded Yenaé, featuring the cultures of our Ethiopia and Eritrea. The driving force to starting Yenaé is based on the our personal experiences, living in different parts of the US- one that showed them the magnitude of the lack of awareness that existed about Africa, especially in a positive light.

At Yenaé, we are focused on offering unique jewelries that give shoppers quality and affordable alternatives to fine jewelry. We put a lot of thought, attention and care into the collections we create, while maintaining focus on ensuring consistency and product safety. This extends to the way we form collaborations to source and manufacture our products and the stories behind product lines. We aim to grow our brand to expand our manufacturing base to Africa, the source for our brand’s product line inspirations. The name Yenaé is derived from Ethiopia’s native Amharic language and means ‘mine’, to signify ‘our experiences’ that we hope to share with you.