Online designer jewellery marketplace Velvetcase gets $1M from Chennai Angels

Mumbai-based Bodhi Brands Pvt Ltd, the company behind the online designer jewellery marketplace Velvetcase.com, has secured $1 million (over Rs 6 crore) in funding from The Chennai Angels (TCA), with participations from Arihant Patni, co-founder of Nirvana Venture Advisors; and Jacob Kurian, partner at New Silk Route Advisors; and Jerry Rao; former CEO of MPhasiS.

The round was led by TCA members Kayar Raghavan and Lakshmi Potluri.

"We are building a global platform connecting creators of design and consumers of design using innovative technologies. This is a first of its kind initiative and we are very excited to have a strong set of investors across India and the US as part of the team," said Kapil Hetamsaria, co-founder of Velvetcase.

The startup was founded in 2012 by Hetamsaria (CEO) and Runit Shah. A MBA from The University of Chicago, Hetamsaria earlier held various key roles at Microsoft, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and McKinsey & Co. Shah (COO) previously worked at Crystaline Exports Pvt Ltd and General Motors.

Velvetcase is an online platform for custom and designer jewellery. It partners with handpicked designers from across the world and brings the best design variety to consumers. It claims to have internationally acclaimed designers who currently cater to global retailers like Tiffany, Harry Winston, Tanishq, Zales and Saks Fifth Avenue, to name a few.

"Velvetcase was a compelling proposition on several counts, but what tipped it for me were the founders' enterprise and infectious passion and the firm's unique business model of presenting a globally crowdsourced but classily curated jewellery design," said Raghavan of TCA.

"Velvetcase is attractive as apart from the passionate founding team, it integrates technology bringing global jewellery designers onto a single platform with a focus on today's customer. Such an online model particularly in this vertical brings wide variety of designs together with supply chain efficiency that creates incredible value proposition for consumers," said Potluri.

Velvetcase is mainly competing with Tiger Global Management-backed Caratlane and K Ganesh- and Accel Partners-backed BlueStone.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)