Jessica Warch admits that her lab-grown diamond business, Kimai, is not the typical company that appears on Dragons’ Den, the U.K. version of Shark Tank.

For one, Warch and cofounder Sidney Neuhaus had a goal other than just raising money; in fact, they turned down the first offer—from “dragon” Sara Davies—even though it matched their request: £250,000, for a 3% stake in the company.

“Brands that go on there are usually quite young, and it’s maybe the first time they’re fundraising,” Warch says. “It’s different for us. We’ve been around a bit. We didn’t want our valuation to go down, and we wanted to get a specific person, because he has the right expertise for us.”

That specific person—Steven Bartlett, host of The Diary of a CEO podcast—originally said he’d pay £250,000 for a 5% stake. Warch and Neuhaus rejected the offer, and Bartlett eventually agreed to take only a 3% share.

Warch says turning down the bids was nerve-wracking and perhaps came off as “weird.”

“People usually just take whatever they get,” she says. “But we wanted to hold on to our valuation. That was super-important to us.”

She also had the larger goal of educating people about lab-grown diamonds.

“In the U.S., [lab-grown] is definitely a huge market,” she says. “In the U.K., it’s growing but it’s not there yet. But if you look at Google Trends [after the show], there was an increase in lab-grown diamond research.”

Warch notes that their episode, which was filmed last year, was heavily edited (as Shark Tank is). She and Neuhaus talked with the “dragons” for two hours, but only about eight minutes were shown. (Neuhaus was visibly pregnant during her appearance, though the show didn’t call that out.)

“It’s so long compared to what you see,” Warch says. “In most of the topics, you go into more depth.”

The appearance led to a surge in media attention for Kimai, as well as a boost in traffic for its site. “We weren’t expecting a crazy spike in sales straight away, because the price point is very different” than what’s usually featured on the show, Warch says. “But definitely, we have seen a spike in sales.”

Warch is hoping the association with Bartlett will help too. “We’re very close to him and his team,” she says. “We talk a lot on WhatsApp. He has a big platform and a big community. It’s really about getting his reach as well. So it’s about the brand, but it’s also about education in general, which is important in the lab-grown space.”

Kimai—which sources its diamonds from growers in India, Israel, and a small producer in the United States—made headlines in 2019 when Meghan Markle wore its earrings. It was the brand’s success in getting Markle to wear the earrings—the result of a cold call—that persuaded Bartlett to come onboard.

“A week or two after launching, we knew we had to get on the right people, because that’s how you build awareness,” Warch says. “We looked into Markle’s close network and started sending emails. And it did work.”

Top: Jessica Warch (left) and Sidney Neuhaus face the “dragons” in the Den. (Photo courtesy of Kimai)

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