Ratan Tata-backed online jewelry store Bluestone raises $28m

Indians and jewelry go a long way. Photo credit: ihdwallpapers.

Ratan Tata-backed online jewelry store BlueStone today announced it raised about $28 million in a fresh round of funding led by IIFL and Accel, among others.

Launched in 2011, Bluestone sells everything from bracelets to solitaires to children’s trinkets, and says it designs and manufactures all products in-house. The fresh round of money will be used to make top-level hires and expand its merchandise, the company said.

“We are now targeting a four-fold increase in revenues to touch INR 1,000 crores [US$149 million] by 2018 and we want to achieve this goal in a profitable and sustainable manner,” Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, founder and CEO, said in a statement.

Indian magnate Ratan Tata invested in Bluestone in 2014 in a personal capacity.

The startup competes with Caratlane, which was recently bought by the Tata Group. Ratan Tata was the chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group, from 1991 till his retirement in 2012.

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Indians love gold and diamond jewelry, but traditionally the market has been dominated by trusted brands and local jewelers who have served families for years. However, a growing ecommerce industry has started to challenge some of those conventions.

India’s jewelry market is currently worth US$60 billion.

Even legacy jewelry companies like Gitanjali Gems, India’s biggest diamond and gold jewelry retailer, have started budgeting for that market opening up.

Currently, the online jewellery segment in India contributes less than 0.5 percent of the overall market which is worth US$60 billion, Bluestone said, but is growing at five times the rate of traditional jewelers.

Bluestone sells around 5,000 jewelry designs on its website. It plans to ramp up its products to 30,000 designs in the next three years.