The Bling Machine

Diamond Foundry is reinventing the fine-jewelry business

- Liz Welch

UNBEKNOWN TO MOST, scientists working in computer labs have been growing diamond shards for decades. But in 2013, solar entrepreneur R. Martin Roscheisen decided to apply the technology to a product far more glamorous—fine jewels. Diamond Foundry, a San Francisco–based company with $100 million in venture capital, has taken aim at the $13 billion diamond industry. With 100 employees split between its diamond lab in Silicon Valley and its design studio in downtown Los Angeles, the startup manufactured 10,000 carats’ worth of diamonds last year, while doubling its revenue every quarter. Roscheisen explains how his company is cleaning up a dirty industry—while designing some very chic jewelry. 

Recast your expertise

In 2010, I left Nanosolar, the solar company I’d started in 2002. Our technology was superb, but the Chinese beat us on pricing. We had amassed an incredible group of engineers, including Jeremy Scholz, who co-founded Diamond Foundry with me and is our CTO. We were looking for our next project. I have a PhD in engineering from Stanford, but my real passion is entrepreneurship. I’d been following the diamond growing science for more than a decade. In 2012, I began to study the technological advancements being made for creating gemstone-size, jewelry-grade white diamonds. Those recent breakthroughs meant a diamond could be grown in a matter of weeks instead of years.