Ada Diamonds, which calls itself the “first luxury retailer” of laboratory-grown diamonds, has closed a Series A funding round, led by Valor Equity Partners’ early-stage investment fund, Valor Siren Ventures.
The amount invested was not disclosed. In addition to selling online, Ada Diamonds, which specializes in bespoke engagement rings and wedding jewelry, has three brick-and-mortar showrooms: San Francisco, New York City, and Austin, Texas.
Ada cofounder and CEO Jason Payne tells JCK, “At our core, we are a tech-enabled jeweler. The proceeds will be used to scale up our technical infrastructure to deliver bespoke jewelry at scale, allow us to launch innovative new product lines, and open new showrooms.”
He adds that “one of our strategic goals is to produce educational content to explain the widening difference between high-quality lab diamonds and goods grown as fast and cheap as possible.”
“While we’ve seen an increase in the quantity of growers and lab diamonds in recent years, we continue to face supply scarcity in quality material,” said cofounder and director of sales Lindsay Reinsmith in a statement.
Reinsmith said that she has personally inspected 15,000 certified lab diamonds.
Valor Equity Partners has invested in companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, SolarCity, Reddit, Gopuff, Misfits Market, and Addepar. Valor Siren Ventures partners with early-stage retail, retail technology, food, food technology, and sustainability businesses.
Payne wrote on LinkedIn: “We chose to partner with Valor for their deep experience scaling operations of category defining startups and look forward to substantially growing and improving the Ada Diamonds experience in the years ahead.”
“We believe lab diamonds will play a considerable role in the future of fine jewelry,” said Jon Shulkin, copresident of Valor Equity Partners and fund manager for Valor Siren Ventures, in a statement.
Top: Ada Diamonds’ showroom in New York City (photo courtesy of Ada Diamonds)
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