Melorra raises $12.5 million from Symphony Asia, Lightbox Ventures, Alteria Capital and others

Melorra, a lightweight fine gold jewellery brand that designs affordable jewellery for everyday wear, has raised $12.5 million in funding from Symphony Asia (one of Asia’s first private equity firms), Lightbox Ventures and Alteria Capital. Others who participated in the round included existing and new family offices of Burman, Jeejeebhoy and others. With this round, Melorra has raised $36.5 million to date.

The funds will be used for technological innovations, product innovations and brand marketing to grow awareness and position Melorra as the choice of a new generation.

“Although raising capital has been tough in the market, funding in this period has re-established investors’ belief in our business model and team. Melorra is operating at positive unit economics and will get to pre-Covid level revenues in November. Since the lockdown was lifted, we have seen a 4X increase in both organic and direct traffic compared to last Diwali and the ASP (average selling price) grow by 40 per cent compared to pre-Covid levels. The added benefit during the pandemic is that we are available online which helps us address customer concerns around trust and safety” Saroja Yeramilli, founder and CEO, Melorra told BusinessLine .

Online buying

Pointing out that consumer shift to online buying, huge savings in wedding costs during the lockdown being diverted to buying gold jewellery and rising demand from small towns which have contributed to growing business volumes on Melorra, Yeramilli said, “even when we couldn’t deliver to customers during the lockdown, they pre-paid and booked jewellery in April/May as they anticipated prices would go up further over the next few months. We have also come up with innovations in the design and manufacture of jewellery, wherein our customers can get the look and feel of expensive gold jewellery without having to shell out a huge amount for it.” The five-year-old start-up offers 10,000 unique designs of which 80 per cent are priced at sub-₹40,000.

Anil Thadani, Chairman of Symphony Asia, said, “We are impressed with the work of Saroja Yeramilli and her team at Melorra in creating a differentiated business model for the jewellery sector in India. Melorra has seen strong growth over the past few years, by bringing fast fashion jewellery to the millennial woman.”

Adding to this, Siddharth Talwar, co-founder of Lightbox Ventures, said: “In March when the pandemic hit, like so many other businesses around the world, Melorra saw sales volumes drop drastically, the future of the jewellery market questioned, and online search traffic heavily decrease. But over the past 4 months, they have turned the business on its head, in what’s been nothing short of a masterclass. Not only is their revenue on track to surpass pre-Covid levels, but they’ve done it while cutting their marketing spend by over 50 per cent and achieving positive unit economics. They are now in a better position than they’ve ever been in their journey to build India’s largest daily wear lightweight gold brand.”

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