It’s Thursday, and today we’re zooming in on Firefly Diamonds, a lab-grown diamond jewellery brand from India founded by Aayush and Adit Bhansali, which closed a seed round led by WestBridge Capital.

Firefly Diamonds’ pitch is pretty straightforward: you can buy diamond jewellery without overpaying for natural diamonds. And the company offers a full range—bracelets, necklaces, earrings, rings—so product variety isn’t the issue.

But what’s more interesting than what they offer is how they go about delivering value. Specifically:

At its core, Firefly makes money by selling jewellery. But there are four other business model elements worth highlighting.

First, part of how it delivers on the trust promise is by keeping tight control over the supply chain. Growing, cutting, polishing, and setting the diamonds are all done in India. That makes quality control easier—and cuts costs.

Second, Firefly’s financing options (Sparkle Plan) make high-value jewellery more accessible. But this isn’t just about affordability—it’s also a customer acquisition tool. In a price-sensitive market like India, spreading out payments helps Firefly bring in younger, aspirational buyers who might otherwise delay their purchase.

Third, these kinds of programs help retain customers. Trying jewellery at home increases the likelihood of a second purchase. And offering a gold exchange program gives customers flexibility: if someone’s over their gold bracelet, they can swap it for a diamond one instead.

Fourth, Firefly isn’t just online—it already has four physical stores, with plans to grow to 20 in the next two years. The expansion covers both metro cities and emerging markets, giving them a wider footprint.

India doesn’t produce diamonds—more than 60% of production is concentrated in Russia and Botswana—but it is the global hub for processing. Especially the city of Surat.

Surat handles 90% of the world’s diamond cutting. It’s now home to the world’s largest office building—the Surat Diamond Bourse—built for 65,000 diamond professionals. It’s positioned as a one-stop destination for India’s diamond industry, bringing together cutters, polishers, traders, and merchants from Surat and Mumbai. The city hosts around 5,000 cutting and polishing units, employing nearly 800,000 people.

In other words, India’s diamond industry is deep-rooted—and the founders’ family has been in it for 60 years. That makes it easier for Firefly to localize everything from design to manufacturing. Every step of the process can be scaled domestically, thanks to a strong local talent pool.

A few stats:

Put it all together, and you’ve got serious macro tailwinds for the industry.

India is not just a major jewellery exporter—it’s also the second-largest consumer market, right behind China. One survey found that 60% of women owned gold jewellery, 57% owned silver, and 26% had diamonds.

That bodes well for Firefly in two ways. One, the size of the market and depth of product penetration means there’s a huge opportunity here. Two, the gold exchange program makes a lot of sense. Many women who don’t own diamonds probably avoid them because of the price—but they do own gold. Swapping gold for a more desired piece (like diamonds) lowers the financial barrier and builds on something they already have.

Because lab-grown diamonds are cheaper to make, it’s easier for new players to enter the market. Firefly will have to navigate not just existing competitors, but also a wave of future Firefly-like startups. That could lead to margin compression as price competition intensifies.

The top of the market—the ones spending hundreds of thousands or millions annually on jewellery—are the most lucrative customers. But they’re also the least likely to switch to “fake” diamonds. In fact, the more popular lab-grown diamonds become, the more exclusive natural diamonds may start to feel.

Convincing people that lab-grown diamonds are just as good as the “real” thing might take time. The overall trend looks promising, but the question is how long it’ll take to shift the mindset of the broader market—and how sticky those preferences will be.

We’ve already talked about the lab-grown momentum. But there’s more to it—India has a young population that’s open to newer ideas, including lab-grown diamonds. We’ve seen hundreds of surveys mentioning how much more climate- and human rights-conscious people are becoming. Although I have my reservations about those surveys, at least the stated preferences are shifting toward the things that should give the lab-grown segment a leg up.

If Firefly nails the trust aspect, there’s so much room to grow—product sets, trade-ins, custom pieces. There’s even potential to move upmarket. As India’s wealth grows, Firefly can grow alongside its customers, offering more expensive and more customized options.

Lab-grown diamonds are way more customizable thanks to their lower cost and controlled production environment. You can even make a diamond Batman, apparently. That gives Firefly a clear edge over traditional sellers, and it gives customers a much more personal experience.

While writing this, I caught myself thinking—we’ve gotten really comfortable with “fake” things in the physical world. Clothes, food and now diamonds. But we’re still debating whether we’re okay with AI-generated music or books.

More on the topic, India’s lab-grown diamond industry feels like a no-lose game. And that’s either a very good thing or a very bad one.