Exclusive: Jewellery retailer BlueStone raises inside round from Accel, Kalaari

BlueStone Jewellery and Lifestyle, which owns and operates omni-channel jewellery brand BlueStone, has raised Rs 14.73 crore (about $2 million at current exchange rates) from its existing investors.

The round, dubbed a Series E round, was led by Accel, which invested Rs 9.44 crore ($1.26 million) through two of its funds, Accel India III (Mauritius) and Accel Growth III Holdings (Mauritius), according to the company’s latest regulatory filings. 

Additionally, IIFL Seed Ventures Fund I invested Rs 1.51 crore ($202,382), while both Kalaari Capital and Iron Pillar Fund put in Rs 1.13 crore ($151,783) each. Ivycap Ventures and Saama Capital contributed Rs 75.56 lakh ($101,197) each in this round, the filings showed.

Earlier this year, the Bengaluru-based company raised Rs 10.64 crore ($1.42 million) from Bethesda, Maryland-based Avanz Capital in the third tranche of its Series D funding round, as per separate filings.

BlueStone founder and CEO Gaurav Kushwaha did not respond to TechCircle’s emails seeking additional details on the capital infusion.

Accel and RB Investments, among others, backed the firm in 2018, investing $5.87 million (Rs 38.29 crore then). In June 2016, it raised $30 million, before which Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, invested an undisclosed amount in the company in September 2014. 

The startup also counts Dragoneer Investment Group, InnoVen Capital and Ganesh Krishnan of Growth Story among its investors.

BlueStone was founded by Vidya Nataraj and Kushwaha in 2011, and ships jewellery, designed in-house, to over 20,000 pin codes across the country and internationally to the US, Canada, UK and Australia. It also has physical stores in over 10 cities, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and New Delhi.

The company competes with Caratlane, which is now majority owned by Tata Group firm Titan and Melorra, besides horizontal ecommerce players Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. 

Digital-only jewellery brand Melorra raised $12 million in a Series C funding round led by returning investor Lightbox in October last year. 

High Street Essentials, which owns omnichannel fashion brands FabAlley and Indya, launched fashion jewellery brand Zyra last year.