Throughout hip-hop’s long history, jewelry has served as a very important vehicle for artists to specific their ideas and opulence, or just to amaze onlookers. Diamonds, particularly, function a very important motif, famously exemplified by Drakes. A $400,000 diamond-encrusted iPhone case.
But not everyone seems to be a millionaire rapper, and most of the people simply cannot afford to wear ice-filled watches. Still, there’s definitely a marketplace for such jewelry at a cheaper price, and enterprise capitalists appear to have taken notice: a direct-to-consumer startup called Diamond Jewelry. Pascal TechCrunch has raised nearly $10 million in VC funding thus far, with $2.5 million coming from Andreessen Horowitz in early 2023.
According to its founder and CEO, Adam Hua, the company expects $20-$30 million in revenue this yr, and its three-month customer repurchase rate is about 20%.
Pascal’s pitch is that he could make diamond jewelry accessible by utilizing lab-grown diamonds that chemically and physically resemble natural diamonds but at one-twentieth the cost. The company’s gem-studded jewelry starts at $70, and it hopes that using cultured diamonds will help it gain a foothold in the cheaper segment of the broader jewelry market.
“The diamond is unique to hip-hop; it’s a status symbol. But most people can’t afford a diamond,” Hua said. “Cultivated diamonds fundamentally change the supply side of the industry.”
Synthetic diamonds have been around Since the Fifties, they usually have often been used to make high-carat jewelry. These diamonds are frequently “grown” in laboratories, where extreme force and warmth are applied to the graphite, much like what naturally occurs in diamonds. Manufacturers of lab-grown diamonds also often prefer to embrace their eco-friendly practices, and a few even take their mission a step further by making diamonds from captured carbon.
For Pascal, the focus is “culture,” and it is not attempting to disrupt the natural diamond sector. Demand for luxury diamonds [for jewelry like] Engagement rings will remain,” Hua said. “We’re just creating a latest, reasonably priced diamond category.”
Pascal diamonds adorn all the things from watches to lipsticks and are available a big selection of colours, rare amongst natural diamonds. Hua emphasized that lab-grown diamonds are also much brighter, “making them good for TikTok videos.”
To find supplies, Pascal heads to Hainan, which has turn into a central Chinese province. A big production center for synthetic diamonds in the world, and China’s emerging manufacturing neighbors comparable to Vietnam and Thailand.
Hua said of his company that it’s a cross-border business by nature. The US is currently Pascal’s largest market, followed by Europe, he added.
Hua seems to have a knack for running fashion businesses. While studying physics at UC Berkeley, he sourced shoes from America and delivered them to sellers in China, helping him earn his first million dollars. He then founded a peer-to-peer streetwear marketplace in China, which raised greater than $10 million in equity funding and generated $1 billion in gross trade value in its third yr of operation. His experience running the company eventually inspired Pascal’s idea.
“I realized that most of my customers were Gen Z and their purchasing power was increasing over time,” he told TechCrunch. “By 2022-2023, the average ticket size had increased to $500, but there was no good product category for the $500+ price range.”
As he surveyed the consumer landscape, Hua selected hip-hop fashion. He noticed how fans of rock bands often bought clothes and accessories to make a statement about their cultural identity, which could range from $30 T-shirts and $200 shoes to $500 leather jackets and $1,000 jewelry.
“What if there was a $500-$1,000 category of diamond products for hip-hop fans and other diamond lovers?” He said while talking about his thought process. When people buy something for normative and cultural needs, they need to get value for his or her money.
Credit : techcrunch.com
