admin
October 30, 2026
Kartikay Kashyap, Financial Express
30 October 2026
Brands are ready to roll the red carpet for consumers this festive season. But for jewellery brands this Diwali will likely be a tad different from previous ones.
For context, consumer spending during Diwali is expected to see a decline according to Mood Of The Consumer, a survey released earlier this week by LocalCircles. On an average, urban households are looking to spend ₹20,000 in discretionary purchases this festive season, with the total spending to decline 6% from last year. The estimate puts festive expenditure at ₹1.97 lakh crores in 2026 compared with ₹2.1 lakh crores in 2025.
For jewellery brand Mia, which retails lightweight everyday jewellery, this is yet another opportunity to cast its net wider. The Titan Company-owned brand has launched Lightscapes, a new collection featuring more than 230 designs across plain gold, natural diamonds and coloured stones. The collection features a range of jhumkis, sculptural danglers, necklaces, pendants, rings and bracelets in 9KT and 14KT gold and is priced under ₹50,000 to woo first-time jewellery buyers. The supporting campaign takes forward Mia’s promise to offer women a conduit for self-expression. At the same time, the new campaign aims to push the idea of buying jewellery for festive gifting.
Mia is not the only one. Giva, which entered the gold jewellery segment during 2023 Akshay Tritiya, has introduced the Heer by Giva collection featuring polki jewellery crafted in 14 KT gold, while its Vivid Gemstone collection offers gemstone designs in 9KT and 14 КТ gold, besides a range of lab-grown diamonds. The range starts from 6,000 and goes up to ₹90,000.
The advertising pitch for jewellery brands is changing in tan-dem. If earlier they used emotion and heritage as triggers, recent advertising highlights self-expression, self-gifting and gender-neutral collections.
“The strategy to bet on affordable jewellery seems to be prompted by the surging price of gold and the hope that consumers would be keen on buying lightweight affordable jewellery this festive season,” says Devangshu Dutta, founder, Third Eyesight.
To be sure, gold prices have been volatile all of 2026. Though it has fallen more than 26% from its January record high, it is still 11.6% higher than last Diwali. For jewellery brands lightweight pieces have become the primary solution to maintaining retail volume, says Sanjeev Shukla, business advisor to fashion retailer Vinusto.in.
Lightweight jewellery has also gained traction among younger consumers in recent years. “Today’s consumers, particularly younger women, are increasingly seeking jewellery that reflects their personal style, offers versatility and fits within their budgets,” says Ajay Maurya, head of marketing & category, Mia by Tanishq. “Our focus is on making contemporary fine jewellery more accessible without compromising on design, quality or craftsmanship.”
Naresh Gupta, managing partner & chief strategy officer, Bang In The Middle, believes that younger generations especially Gen 2 buyers are drastically changing what and how they buy. Instead of heavy, occasion-led, or locker-stashed gold pieces meant strictly for weddings and festivals, they are pivoting toward lightweight, design-forward, and everyday wear. They want Indo-Western pieces that pair as well with a Diwali lehenga as they do with an office-event blazer. “The Diwali campaign strategy aligns with the jewellery retailers’ strategy to catch on the younger lot and recruit them into the ecosystem early in their stage,” says Gupta.
Daily-wear jewellery already accounts for 33%-35% of the overall retail gold jewellery market valued at 15.7 lakh crore in CY25. Organised retailers held about 37% of this market in CY25.
Apart from self-expression, light-weight jewellery also makes a good case for gifting. “Entry-level fine jewellery and budget-friendly pieces work particularly well for gifting, which makes them relevant during the festive season,” tells Disha Shah, founder, DiAi Designs.
A golden opportunity
Will Mia’s decision to take the affordability route cannibalise stable brands like Zoya and Carat Lane? If young buyers form the habit of wearing lightweight jewellery, they might do that during wedding as well, says Gupta.
One might argue that brands like Mia enable new buyers enter the fine jewellery ecosystem and move up the ladder to become the customers of brands like Tanishq and Zoya. But Vinusto’s Shukla argues repeat buying might still be a challenge for the affordable jewellery players.
For Mia, which crossed the ₹2,000-сrоге revenue milestone in the financial year 2025-26, the festive season represents a crucial window to turn up the volume. Experts say the season makes up 15-20% of the annual jewellery sales and some brands have gone on record to say they have already seen a 50% surge over pre-Diwali sales.
DiAi’s Shah remains optimistic. “We are seeing new customers explore jewellery, alongside existing customers who are looking to redesign or upgrade pieces they already own. Festive occasions provide a natural reason to enter the category, while contemporary, everyday fine jewellery can help build that relationship beyond the festive period,” she says.
(Published in Financial Express)
admin
December 1, 2025
Priyamvada C, Mint
1 Dec 2025
A wave of investor capital is flowing into India’s laboratory-grown diamond (LGD) segment, as fastscaling brands tap rising consumer adoption in a market now worth well over $300 million. New-age brands have raised multiple rounds of capital on the back of growing market share and improving margins.
Actor Shilpa Shetty-backed Limelight, which is in talks to raise its second round of capital this year, joins the growing list of other small brands such as Onya, Giva, Jewelbox, Lucira Jewellery and Aukera, among others, who have snagged monies in recent months. Limelight has appointed Ambit Capital to raise about $20 million to fund its expansion plans, two people familiar with the matter said.
Confirming the fundraise, the six year-old company’s co-founder Pooja Madhavan said the funds will be used towards store expansion and brand building as it looks to touch 100 stores over the next year. “We are in final talks with growth PE funds and reputed family offices (for the fundraise),” she told Mint.
Other similar fundraises include Onya’s ₹5.5 crore in a pre-seed round led by Zeropearl VC last week, Aukera’s $15 million raise led by Peak XV Partners and Aditya Birla Ventures-backed Giva raised ₹530 crore in an internal round led by Premji Invest, Epiq Capital and Edelweiss Discovery Fund, as it looks to scale up its lab-grown diamond offerings.
Nine pure-play lab grown diamond startups collectively raised a record $26.4 million in 2025, compared with $4.7 million across eight startups last year, data from market intelligence provider Tracxn showed.
The development comes as India’s lab-grown diamond jewellery market, valued at about $300-350 million in 2024, expects to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% over the next decade, as per consultancy firm Redseer’s estimates. As the market evolves, several prominent jewellery brands will gradually pivot from exclusively natural/mined diamonds in favour of lab-grown alternatives, alongside high-end jewellers incorporating the lab-growns into their select collections, which will drive sales volumes and act as an affordable entry point for consumers.
This segment has particularly picked pace in the last five years, with millennials and gen Z leading this shift, driven by better value, trendier designs from new-age brands, and growing comfort with lab-grown diamonds as a certified, high-quality product. This category has also widened beyond occasional fashion to gifting, daily wear and increasingly bridal, reflecting sustained consumer confidence and a willingness to treat them as a mainstream jewellery option, Rohan Agarwal, partner at Redseer told Mint in an emailed statement.
He further added that new-age brands have steadily gained market share in the mid-ticket gifting and daily wear segment with many trying to push into premium ranges. While the competitive landscape is still evolving, incumbents have already started responding by launching LGD lines of their own, although the extent to which they can challenge remains to be seen.
Major Indian brands that are considering a foray into this category include Malabar Gold & Diamonds, Senco Gold, which has launched the subbrand Sennes and Tata’s Trent, which launched its brand Pome in Westside stores.
Devangshu Dutta, founder and chief executive officer at Delhi-based consulting firm Third Eyesight, echoed the sentiment. He explained that new-age lab grown diamond players are forcing traditional jewellers to introduce LGD options or risk losing younger customers. “Not just precious jewellery brands, even those that started as fashion jewellery are expanding their range with LGD designs.”
“Down the road, there is potentially scope for consolidation as investors tend to prefer a handful of scaled platforms with strong brand recall and robust economics. So, as the category matures, there may be strategic acquisitions by large jewellery houses and corporates, as well as mergers among funded startups,” he added.
Those startups that can combine in-house manufacturing, design capabilities and data-driven retail expansion would be at an advantage, Dutta said. “Key future growth areas for LGD startups include omnichannel retail presence within India, with offline stores especially in demand-dense locations such as the metros and Tier 1 cities, export markets both with potential cost advantages and brand expansion, and extending into fashion jewellery, everyday wear, coloured lab grown stones and even luxury collaborations that position lab grown as aspirational rather than merely budget friendly.”
(Published in Mint)
