Pune-based demifine jewellery brand Palmonas has raised ₹55 crore in a Series A round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, a Temasek subsidiary, as it looks to aggressively expand its offline presence with 100 company-owned stores across the country.
The round, led entirely by Vertex, marks Palmonas’ first institutional raise. The company currently operates 25 stores across metros and tier-2 cities, and plans to open 100 new stores and deepen its presence across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune, while experimenting with emerging markets such as Aurangabad and Bhagalpur. About 60% of the new outlets will be in malls, 40% on high streets, with a handful at airports.
The fresh capital will be deployed primarily for offline expansion, team hiring, and product innovation. Palmonas has recently doubled down on nine-carat gold with lab-grown diamonds, a category that has picked up sharply amid soaring gold prices and the government’s nod for hallmarking in nine-carat jewellery.
Financially, the company has scaled rapidly in the past two years. Revenue rose from ₹3.83 crore in FY23 to ₹5.38 crore in FY24, albeit with a net loss of ₹1.24 crore.
Before this institutional raise, Palmonas had secured around ₹7 crore through a mix of angel investors and Shark Tank India, where it won backing from Namita Thapar of Emcure Pharmaceuticals and Ritesh Agarwal.
Palmonas’ fundraise comes at a time when investors are showing a growing appetite for jewellery startups, especially those innovating with lab-grown diamonds and demifine offerings. Bengaluru-based Aukera secured $15 million from Peak XV Partners in June to scale its lab-grown diamond business, while True Diamond raised $3 million in a pre-Series A led by India Quotient earlier this year. Fashion jewellery label Amama also attracted $1 million from Mistry Ventures, and Coluxe, a lab-grown jewellery startup founded by Priyanka Gill, closed a friends-and-family round in July ahead of its digital launch.Meanwhile, larger players are actively accessing capital markets. Fine-jewellery brand GIVA raised ₹530 crore in a Series C round led by Creaegis in June, Lalithaa Jewellery Mart has filed for a ₹1,700 crore IPO, and BlueStone recently listed on the bourses.
