<article>Online jewellery retailer <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://bluestone.com">BlueStone</a> has raised Rs 200 crore ($30 million) in its Series D round of investment led by <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/iifl">IIFL</a> and <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/accel-partners">Accel Partners</a>.</article>

Online jewellery retailer <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://bluestone.com">BlueStone</a> has raised Rs 200 crore ($30 million) in its Series D round of investment led by <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/iifl">IIFL</a> and <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/accel-partners">Accel Partners</a>.
Existing investors <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/kalaari">Kalaari Capital</a> and <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/ivycap">IvyCap Ventures</a> along with Singapore-based <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.rbworld.com/">RB Investments</a> also participated in this round of funding.
DEALSTREETASIA had <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/exclusive-2-40004/">first reported</a> that BlueStone was in the process of raising around $30 million, two months ago.
&#8220;It will be used to strengthen our core value proposition, which are the  products and designs that we have under the brand BlueStone. We have 5,000 unique designs on the website now, which we need to take up to 25,000-30,000 in the next few years. That is where we will be investing a lot of our resources,&#8221; Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, founder of Bluestone told DEALSTREETASIA.
The company will also be investing heavily in advertising and branding to establish itself as a &#8220;trustworthy brand&#8221;, he added.
<a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/ratan-tata">Ratan Tata</a>-backed BlueStone.com had recently said it would  be investing Rs 40 crore on marketing over the next 12 months.
The company plans to double its GMV run-rate by the close of FY 2016-17 to Rs 500 crore ($75 million), and then targets to reach Rs 1,000 crore ($150 million) run rate in the subsequent year.
Bangalore-based Bluestone was founded by IIT graduate Gaurav Singh Kushwaha and Vidya Nataraj in 2011. It sells jewellery targeted at women buyers with its own manufacturing, designs and delivery functions.
It claims to be profitable at an operational level and aims to hit profits at the net level by 2018, Kushwaha said.
In July last year, the firm had announced a third round of VC funding, worth Rs 100 crore ($15 million) led by Accel Partners, <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/ivycap">IvyCap Ventures</a> and Dragoneer, with participation of Kalaari Capital and <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/saama-capital">Saama Capital</a>.
Prior to that, Bluestone had raised $5 million in 2012 from Accel Partners. Two years later it raised another $10 million from Kalaari Capital, Accel Partners and Saama Capital. Subsequently Ratan Tata came on-board as an investor, his second funding in the e-commerce space.
The funding comes close on the heels of <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/titan">Titan Company Ltd</a> announcing the acquisition of BlueStone’s bigger rival <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/caratlane">CaratLane Trading Pvt Ltd</a>. The deal was valued at Rs 357 crore ($53 million) for 62 per cent stake.
In January, <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/melorra">Melorra</a>, a Bangalore-based online jewellery startup, raised $5 million from venture capital firm <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/lightbox-ventures">Lightbox Ventures</a>, in one of the biggest seed funding rounds in India.
It currently offers jewellery products like rings, earrings, pendants, bangles and necklaces among others, made from silver, gold, diamond and gemstones etc. Other than this users can order ‘collections’ or sets of jewellery, gifts and gold coins on the platform.
To compete with local brick and mortar jewellers that continue to dominate the market, BlueStone offers a home &#8216;try-on&#8217; option, that lets users select the products they like, book an appointment for a visit, and try the jewellery at home.
&#8220;The biggest task at hand is to move people from buying jewellery offline to online, and being the leading player, the onus is on us to grow the market, along with Tanishq, which recently acquired CaraLane,&#8221; Kushwaha said.
According to the World Gold Council, Indians bought 662 tonnes of gold jewellery, valued at $26.9 billion, last year. The online retail market for jewellery is expected to rise from $3.5 billion to $6 billion this year according to Gartner. That would still be a small fraction of the overall jewellery market, leaving room for rapid growth.
Also Read:
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/exclusive-2-40004/">Exclusive: Indian online jeweller BlueStone in process of raising $30-40m</a>
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/titan-acquires-caratlane-39989/">India: Titan to acquire majority stake in jewellery startup CaratLane</a>

India:  Online jeweller BlueStone raises $30m led by IIFL, Accel Partners

India: BlueStone raises $30m led by IIFL, Accel Partners

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