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Bluestone, the Ratan Tata-backed online jewellery company, plans to raise about $50 million (Rs 320 crore) in the next few months, to aid its growth.
The company is seeking funds after almost a year. Tata, via RNT Associates Pvt Ltd, has invested close to Rs 3 crore in the Bengaluru-based company, according to data with the registrar of companies (RoC).
Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, founder and chief executive of Bluestone, told the Business Standard it is in talks with a couple of entities which could put money into the firm, apart from the existing investors. Kalaari Capital, Accel India and Saama Capital are the three major investors at present.
Existing investors, as a usual practice, would dilute partial stake for the new investment to be infused.
Bluestone aims to raise its gross merchandise value (GMV) by three times to about Rs 300 crore by 2015-16.
“We grew our GMV by four times last fiscal and it would about Rs 100 crore by March 2015. The market is growing exponentially, as there is more awareness among people starting to buy jewelry online,” Kushwaha said.
The net revenue of Bluestone, under the company name of Bluestone Jewellery & Lifestyle Pvt Ltd, grew about four times to Rs 17 crore in FY14 as against a little over Rs 4 crore a year before, RoC data showed. Bluestone’s loss rose to Rs 21.6 crore in FY14 from Rs 15 crore in FY13.
But Kushwaha feels operational profitability might not be far away, as his is not a deep discount-model business. “Delivery of our products is slightly different from the others. A majority of our business is from the metro and Tier-I cities. But as we know the potential in Tier-II and Tier-III is significant, we are also working to tap that potential," he added.
In India, a major chunk of the jewellery market is unorganised and the total size is estimated to be $10-15 billion. Organised retailing, online and offline, is still not a large pie but the scenario is likely to change over the years.
Founded in 2011, BlueStone.com had raised $5 million in Series-A funding in 2012, used to set up operations and marketing. In March last year, it had announced a second round of venture capital funding, worth $10 mn (Rs 60 crore).
The funding was led by Kalaari Capital; existing investors Accel India and Samma Capital had also participated.
The company has its own facility to produce jewellery and also gives customers the option to track the status of manufacture of any item they order online.
