Online jewellery retailer BlueStone bags $16M from IvyCap Ventures, Dragoneer & others

Online jewellery retailer BlueStone.com has secured Rs 100 crore ($16 million) in funding from IvyCap Ventures, Dragoneer and existing investors, it said on Thursday.

The company's existing investors Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Saama Capital also participated in this round, as per a press statement.

BlueStone, which is run by Bangalore-based Jewels Online Distribution India Pvt Ltd, will use the money to increase marketing effort.

"Consumers are far more comfortable buying jewellery online today, than a year back. The ecosystem in India has enabled trust in the e-commerce sector. I am confident about achieving over 200 per cent growth every year for the next 2-3 years," Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, co-founder and CEO of BlueStone, said.

BlueStone claims to have a current revenue run rate of Rs 80-100 crore per annum and is operationally profitable.

"We decided to invest in BlueStone team because we believe in the team due to their strong pedigree of IIT and IIMs," Vikram Gupta, managing partner at IvyCap Ventures, said.

Avendus Capital was the advisor for this transaction.

BlueStone is expanding its team to cater to the growing demand. It will add another 150 resources across all levels in addition to the 250 staffers that are currently employed with the company. "Expanding our team will enable us to launch more designs more frequently. Significant efforts are already under way to improve the user experience on mobile and desktop platform," Kushwaha said.

In September last year, Ratan Tata, who is the chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, made a personal investment in BlueStone. This was one of Tata's earlier investments in the technology space. He has become an active private investor in several tech ventures both in India and abroad lately.

BlueStone, that competes with the likes of Caratlane, had previously raised $15 million in two rounds.

Institutional brokerage firm CLSA Asia Pacific Markets predicts that the e-commerce market for online jewellery would grow to $22 billion by 2018 globally.