Caratlane raises $31M in Series D round from Tiger Global

Chennai-based Carat Lane Trading Pvt. Ltd. which owns and operates online jewellery portal Caratlane.com, has raised Rs 192 crore ($31 million) in Series D round of funding from existing investor Tiger Global. It is learnt that the investment firm now owns a majority stake in the e-tailer.

The transaction was closed last month, sources said.

It could not immediately be ascertained as to how the firm intends to deploy the fresh money it has raised.

Email queries sent to Caratlane and Tiger Global did not immediately elicit a response.

Earlier, The Economic Times said the firm has raised Rs 185 crore in its new round.

Founded in 2008, Caratlane deals in gold, silver and diamond jewellery. It was founded by Srinivasa Gopalan (an IT entrepreneur who was the founder and CEO of Lister Technologies) and Mithun Sacheti (scion of Jaipur Gems, which has stores in Mumbai, Chennai and Coimbatore).

The funding comes almost two years after it raised its Series C round worth around $10 million from Tiger Global. Previously it had raised another $10-12 million in its first two institutional rounds of funding in 2011 and 2012.

Caratlane closed FY14 with total income of RS 98 crore with Rs 37 crore net loss. Its loss almost doubled while top-line rose some 22 per cent over the year ended March 31, 2013.

The latest transaction easily makes it the most funded player in its business.

Another significant player in the space is Bluestone.com which had last year raised fresh money from Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Saama Capital besides a separate funding from former Tata Group chief Ratan Tata.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)