Powerhouse Ventures, others invest $500K in online jewellery marketplace Joolz

Mumbai-based GemSwipe Ltd, which runs online jewellery marketplace Joolz, has raised $500,000 (Rs 3.3 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round led by Powerhouse Ventures and M&S Partners.

Other investors including Ah! Ventures; Deepak Kasthwal, former CFO of Ola; PKX Thomas, former technology head of Cleartrip; and Mahesh Ahuja, CEO Brittman India, also participated in the round, as per a statement.

The funding will be used to enhance operations, products, marketing and team building, it said.

"Buying jewellery is so intertwined with Indian culture that selling it online is not going to create any significant impact in the market. We want to be the single-biggest facilitator of jewellery commerce, whether online or offline," said Arnaud Lorie, founder, Joolz.

The startup aggregates and curates jewellery inventory and enables two-way interaction between jewellery buyers and sellers through discussion and discovery. The platform is accessible through Android and iOS apps.

The company, which was founded in May 2015,  claims to have an average ticket size of about Rs 25,000.

In June 2016, online designer jewellery marketplace Velvetcase.com raised close to $2 million in a second round of funding led by Uniqorn Ventures Fund with participation from angel investors including TV Mohandas Pai and S Somasegar through online deal-making platform LetsVenture.

Last month, Bangalore-based jewellery e-tailer BlueStone raised $30 million (Rs 200 crore) in a fresh round of investment led by financial services firm IIFL Holdings Ltd and Accel Partners.

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