Lab-grown diamonds sparkle as startups polish pitch

Young companies selling laboratory-grown diamonds are ramping up investments in building awareness and expanding product lines as growing adoption of the category in recent months has sparked optimism, industry executives told Mint.

- Sowmya Ramasubramanian

BENGALURU:

Bengaluru-based Jewelbox has nearly doubled its marketing budget in the last year and now incurs nearly 20% of its online expenditure on awareness campaigns, its co-founder Nipun Kochar said.

"About a fifth of our online digital spends goes towards awareness campaigns. There's a mental block around lab-grown diamonds compared to mined diamonds, and brands need to put in resources to disseminate the right information," Kochar added.

Jewelbox's other co-founder—Vidita Kochar—routinely posts videos on Instagram and YouTube sharing information about how lab-grown diamonds are made, how different they are from regular stones, and how one can pick the right one.