ET BureauBENGALURU: Online designer jewellery marketplace Velvetcase has Rs 6 raised more than $1 million in a funding round led by Chennai Angels. Several marque angel investors, including Jacob Kurian, partner at New Silk route Advisors, Arihant Patni, co-founder of Nirvana Venture Advisors, and Jerry Rao, former CEO of software company MphasiS, also participated in their personal capacity.
Two-year-old Velvetcase is an online platform linking international and Indian jewellery designers to customers in eight countries. “We will invest the money to strengthen our technology platform and analytics to make it more relevant and engaging for our customers as well as on marketing,“ said co-founder Kapil Hetamsaria, who was previously Asia lead of enterprise strategy at Microsoft.
Last week, the startup announced that it was designing an exquisite trophy for Mahesh Bhupathi-promoted International Premier Tennis League (IPTL).
The trophy is a 15 kg life-size tennis racquet and ball on a rectangular teak-wood base, all gilded with gold and silver and studded with more than 100 carats of diamonds and gemstones.
Velvetcase gets about 15% of its revenue from international markets. The company, which was bootstrapped till now, broke even last year. Velvetcase is growing at 200% year-on-year.
“The idea was unique and scalable but ultimately 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 Kayar Raghavan from Chennai Angels.
Velvetcase gets its jewellery designed by designers like Payal Pratap and Bombay Atelier. It uses 3-D printing to make life-size models of the jewellery, which customers can try on at home before making the final decision.
The Mumbai-based company also allows customers to send their own designs, which are then converted into the final piece of jewellery. Manufacturing is done in India. Other competitors in this space include Tiger Global-backed Caratlane and Kalaari Capital-backed BlueStone.
“Jewellery is moving away from being an intrinsic value purchase to a design oriented purchase,“ said Arvind Singhal, chairman of re tail and advisory firm Techno pak. “For customers, the jewellery they wear should be unique and fit into overall fashion trends,“ he said.
However, jewellery still ac counts for a very small percent age of all online transactions. A study done by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) and market research firm IMRB found there were about Rs 3.7 lakh jewellery transactions a month in 2013 in India's top 35 cities.In comparison, more than 24 lakh mobile phones and accessories were sold online.
Two-year-old Velvetcase is an online platform linking international and Indian jewellery designers to customers in eight countries. “We will invest the money to strengthen our technology platform and analytics to make it more relevant and engaging for our customers as well as on marketing,“ said co-founder Kapil Hetamsaria, who was previously Asia lead of enterprise strategy at Microsoft.
Last week, the startup announced that it was designing an exquisite trophy for Mahesh Bhupathi-promoted International Premier Tennis League (IPTL).
The trophy is a 15 kg life-size tennis racquet and ball on a rectangular teak-wood base, all gilded with gold and silver and studded with more than 100 carats of diamonds and gemstones.
Velvetcase gets about 15% of its revenue from international markets. The company, which was bootstrapped till now, broke even last year. Velvetcase is growing at 200% year-on-year.
“The idea was unique and scalable but ultimately 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 Kayar Raghavan from Chennai Angels.
Velvetcase gets its jewellery designed by designers like Payal Pratap and Bombay Atelier. It uses 3-D printing to make life-size models of the jewellery, which customers can try on at home before making the final decision.
The Mumbai-based company also allows customers to send their own designs, which are then converted into the final piece of jewellery. Manufacturing is done in India. Other competitors in this space include Tiger Global-backed Caratlane and Kalaari Capital-backed BlueStone.
“Jewellery is moving away from being an intrinsic value purchase to a design oriented purchase,“ said Arvind Singhal, chairman of re tail and advisory firm Techno pak. “For customers, the jewellery they wear should be unique and fit into overall fashion trends,“ he said.
However, jewellery still ac counts for a very small percent age of all online transactions. A study done by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) and market research firm IMRB found there were about Rs 3.7 lakh jewellery transactions a month in 2013 in India's top 35 cities.In comparison, more than 24 lakh mobile phones and accessories were sold online.
Get Unlimited Access to The Economic Times
