The round also saw participation from Gemba Capital and IIMA Ventures, TDV Partners and Venture Lab
The company said it will use the fresh capital to expand its presence across urban India. It will also use it to partner with international brands to establish their presence in India
Arthi Ramalingam, a former Udaan marketing lead, founded Eternz in 2023 as an online marketplace for international and Indian jewellery brands
Eternz, a Bengaluru-based jewellery marketplace, has secured $1.15 Mn (around INR 9.6 Cr) in a pre-seed funding round led by Kae Capital.
The round also saw participation from Gemba Capital and IIMA Ventures, TDV Partners and Venture Lab.
The company said it will use the fresh capital to expand its presence across urban India. It will also use it to partner with international brands to establish their presence in India. Besides this, it also aims to open a retail experience centre to offer shoppers a touch-and-feel experience around jewellery.
Arthi Ramalingam, a former Udaan marketing lead, founded Eternz in 2023 as an online marketplace for international and Indian jewellery brands. The platform also allows customers features such as customisation and personalisation besides directly selling jewellery.
“As a platform, we are solving for trust and discovery that consumers face while purchasing jewellery online. There is a huge trust deficit online and consumers shy away from buying even if they like the designs,” the founder and CEO said.
The company aims to sign strategic partnerships with brands to enhance distribution of these brands by connecting them to high-intent customers.
Currently, it offers products from brands such as GIVA, Angara, Kisna, Touch925 among others. While it currently offers fashion and silver jewellery, Eternz aims to expand its catalogue to gold and diamond jewellery in the near future.
On the online front, the marketplace competes against the likes of BlueStone, Caratlane as well as a host of other brands and jewellery chains such as Tanishq that have online stores.
In terms of scale, Caratlane and BlueStone are the largest online jewellery marketplaces in the startup ecosystem.
Earlier this year, Tata Group company Titan acquired Caratlane in a deal that valued the marketplace at over $2 Bn, a deal which was in the making since 2016. CaratLane last reported a revenue of INR 2,177 Cr in FY23, well ahead of Bluestone, which reported revenue of INR 771 Cr in FY23.