One week into operations, Melorra sets record for highest early stage investment in India

Bengaluru-based online jewellery brand Melorra.com, which launched operations this week, has raised USD 5 million (about Rs 33 crore) from Lightbox Ventures, making it the largest early stage investment in the country. The brand caters to modern Indian women by developing, designing and retailing contemporary jewellery through a mobile platform.

Melorra.com was founded by former Titan Industries and Dell senior executive Saroja Yeramilli and R Krishnakumar who worked for nearly two decades across Titan Industries, Arvind Lifestyle and Mahindra Retail. "We are keen to disrupt the online jewellery market, which is still nascent here. It accounts for merely 0.1 per cent of jewellery sales in the country," Saroja Yeramilli founder and Chief Executive of Melorra.com told PTI.

Melorra.com has about 40 employees, and an inhouse design team, she said. The company follows an order-based inventory model and will outsource its supply chain and delivery to Sequel Logistics that handles high security deliveries. Once an order is placed, the delivery of jewellery will take 5-7 days, she said. "A few years back, nobody thought online apparel sales would take off here, but it's among the fastest moving e-commerce propositions today," Yeramilli said.

"We expect online jewellery will also go through a similar cycle and we want to build a good brand in the space," she said. "The opportunity in the jewellery market here is massive, and over 80 per cent of it is still unorganised. We want to build a strong brand with Melorra, bridge the gap in the market and reinvent the shopping experience," Nitin Sharma, Principal at Lightbox Ventures said.

Melorra.com is the fifth investment for Lightbox Ventures from its second fund that has USD 100 million corpus. The other companies that are part of the same portfolio include online education company Embibe, used car company Droom, furniture renting company Furlenco and food tech company Faasos.