Current Situation at KEYGEM — An Honest Update

As some of you have already noticed, we have been facing significant challenges over the past year. We want to take a moment to explain openly what has happened, how it has affected us, and what this means for the future of KEYGEM.

How It Started

Our difficulties began in 2023, when the first major project failures occurred.
Several designers and manufacturers did not deliver on their commitments — either partially or not at all.

In 2024, these issues escalated, and the financial impact has unfortunately grown into the multiple five-figure range.

We faced different types of problematic projects:

• Projects where we invested substantial amounts of money but received no products or services at all.

• Projects where we did receive products, but their quality or functionality did not match what had been promised.

• Projects where production delays were so long that many customers lost interest and requested refunds.
  These products now sit in our warehouse — fully functional and good quality — but with far less demand than originally expected.

In all these cases, every customer was fully refunded, which means the entire financial loss remained with us:
the initial investment (often well over €10,000 per project) and the profit we would have needed to sustain operations.

Fraud Incidents

We also fell victim to several sophisticated fraud schemes.
Due to a data leak at a partner company, we received invoices containing completely correct project information — but with fraudulent bank details.
Despite immediate legal action and involving the police, the damage was already done.

Market Decline

Since mid-2023, the custom keyboard hobby has noticeably slowed down worldwide.
Sales across the entire industry have dropped significantly — a trend confirmed by many vendors, not just us.
Our own sales no longer come close to the levels of previous years.

We have always worked in this industry out of passion — not for personal gain, but because we genuinely love the community and the hobby.

What Does This Mean for KEYGEM?

We are still here.
And we are not giving up.

KEYGEM began at the end of 2019 with just two people and €6,000 in starting capital.
Since then, we have processed over 80,000 orders and built strong relationships with many wonderful customers.

We know this statement comes later than it should have — but before speaking publicly, we needed to take concrete steps behind the scenes.

Here is what we have already done:

• We have significantly reduced our staff.

• We have reduced our own salaries to the bare minimum.

• We are investing only in what is absolutely necessary.

• We are doing our best to continue offering good deals and value to you.

It is not easy — but we will continue to give our best to regain your trust.
We will not disappear like some other vendors have.
That is not an option for us.

What About Your Current Pre-Orders (QK, Neo, etc.)?

We are currently working through all refund requests.
This process is slow, because a large number of refunds at the same time puts significant financial strain on us — both the money originally planned for manufacturing, and the profit margin needed to keep KEYGEM operational.

We still plan to order all Neo and QK units as originally intended, but we cannot provide a final date yet.
First, we must finish processing refunds, and then verify which orders remain active.

We will pay for every Group Buy and Pre-Order, and everything will be shipped to you as soon as it arrives.

All in-stock orders continue to ship next business day, as always.

Looking Forward

We truly hope that this message is a first step toward the transparency many of you have asked for — and that we should have provided much earlier.

We apologize sincerely for the long silence.
Taking this step and speaking so openly is not easy for any business owner — but honesty and communication are the only way forward.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for being part of KEYGEM.
We will keep fighting for this company, this community, and this hobby.

Angelo & Ellen

— The KEYGEM Team