Ankur Daga has been searching for diamonds since he was 5 years old—that’s what it is like to grow up when your dad has a wholesale gemstone business and you have the perfect perspective as a kindergartner to find the stones that have fallen into the studio carpet.
At age 13, Daga worked—during the summer in Jaipur, India—as an assistant to the stonecutters in a room without air conditioning. Daga remembers it as hard work but fascinating. This was before today’s technology, so you had to maximize the yield by using your eye and instinct, he says.
Daga understandably felt drawn to gemstones based on these early experiences, but the industry seemed “antiquated and slow to move,” he says. He decided to forgo the family business and instead attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School for undergrad and Harvard’s prestigious business school for his MBA, then landed a position with McKinsey & Co. in New York, consulting with Fortune 500 companies.
Ah, but if you’re a frequent reader of this feature, you know what happens next. That old jewelry industry magic brought Daga back. But, as in any great story, Daga did it on his own terms. If the rest of the world is into diamonds, he knew there was an opportunity to go big with colored gemstones.
Daga and his wife and business partner, Aditi, are cofounders and operators of Angara, a jewelry business focused on colored gemstones that’s based in Los Angeles but has offices in India, Thailand, Australia, Ireland, and Canada. In April, Aditi Daga was recognized on Inc.’s sixth annual Female Founders list, honoring 200 women whose ideas and innovations are shaping the world into a better place, according to the magazine.
The Dagas’ goal with Angara is to become the De Beers of sorts for colored gemstones. The company recently debuted a campaign devoted to educating the public about these stones and why owning one is, dare we say it, even better than owning a diamond. Bold, yes. But Ankur Daga says that with new technology, customer interest, and smart marketing, the jewelry industry has never been more exciting.
“De Beers with ‘A Diamond Is Forever’ changed an entire market. Within the consumer’s psyche, the 4Cs made sense, and it took off. But there’s no real corollary in color to build a broader market,” Daga says. “That’s why I wanted to enter the market—it’s an untapped opportunity and it’s a way to express ourselves.”
But let’s rewind for a moment. What changed Daga’s mind to get him from consulting and investment banking back to jewelry? It was two different experiences he had, at Harvard and McKinsey. At Harvard, Daga spent time as assistant to the CEO of one of the largest diamond companies in the world, and he saw an opportunity within online retail for fine jewelry.
Later, his final project at McKinsey convinced him jewelry was his next move. As a McKinsey consultant for a jewelry company, Daga says he learned that if he focused on customer service and education, he could create something special within the jewelry world. He knew that if a jewelry business were well organized, especially within India, it could grow a market into a billion-dollar industry.
Angara started in 2005 as a fine jewelry company that would used technology to differentiate itself, Daga says. By 2012, Angara had the systems it needed to not only be competitive worldwide but also ensure customers could feel completely confident purchasing fine jewelry online, through virtual try-ons and 3D views.
Additional tech investments in recent years have made Angara even more competitive, Daga says. For example, Angara’s website allows the consumer to modify a piece—the company will have it produced and shipped within two weeks.
As colored gemstones take a greater percentage of market share and jewelry clientele gets more diverse, Daga believes Angara is firmly positioned to grow even more in the years to come.
“Our goal is to be synonymous with color,” Daga says. “Our team is singularly focused around that mission.”
Top: Ankur Daga was a business consultant before starting his own jewelry company, Angara, with his wife, Aditi. The technology-forward company focuses on colored gemstones, which Daga says differentiates it within the industry. (Photos courtesy of Angara)
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