Pooja Sheth Madhavan,
Founder & MD - Limelight Lab Grown Diamonds

In an exclusive with Pooja Sheth Madhavan, Founder & MD of Limelight Lab Grown Diamonds - the New Jeweller Lab grown diamond bureau gets to know about her fascination in Lab Grown Diamonds and key factors that have gone in behind making Limelight Diamonds achieve a leadership position in the Indian and International Markets. Excerpts:

Tell us something about the evolution of Lab grown diamonds and the FTC guidelines that helped position Lab grown Diamonds in the International Market to give it a unique identity?

Lab grown diamonds were introduced to the US consumer markets in early 2015 and the awareness rapidly increased over the years, particularly in 2018 when the US FTC (Federal Trade Commission) changed the jewellery guidelines. The guidelines removed the word "natural” from their diamond definition and also refused to define lab grown diamonds as “synthetic” diamonds as synthetic is often used for a product that is a look alike/ artificial/ substitute. However, that is not the case with lab grown diamonds as they are 100% real and of the same make as a natural diamond. Therefore, US FTC guidelines state that lab grown diamonds should simply be referred to as lab grown diamonds. Moreover, even leading diamond grading labs such as GIA validated that lab grown diamonds are identical in terms of their physical, chemical, optical and thermal characteristics. This instilled immense confidence in consumers and resulted in an exponential spread in awareness and consumption of the product. Moreover, now consumers globally are increasingly supporting ecoconscious products and the eco-friendly nature of lab grown diamonds has become the main USP.

Though India being one of the largest producers of Lab grown diamonds, How do you see export of cut and polished diamonds increasing in the coming months and what according to you would become the key factors for increasing exports from India into buying economies concerning lab grown diamonds?

Lab grown diamond exports have seen exponential growth with an annual growth rate of almost 84%. Infact in FY 2022, lab grown diamond exports nearly doubled to INR 9764 Crores, compared to INR 5175 Crores last year. Of the roughly 8,000 diamond polishing units in India, over 20- 25% have begun polishing lab grown diamonds and 15% polish only lab-grown diamonds exclusively. And this is only going to increase over time and therefore exports from India are likely to increase. Moreover, I consider this to be a brilliant opportunity for India to truly become the hub of Lab grown diamonds. So far, India has been the leader in cutting & polishing of diamonds which allowed us to earn as job workers or labourers but was burdening the country with nearly $17bn of imports of natural diamonds. Now with the ability to grow the same diamonds, CVD industry offers India a great chance to be the principal owner of the product and free of imports. The Indian government has also recognized this and is constantly engaging with us to devise policies such as the PLI schemes, CFC facilities etc. that can encourage expansion of CVD diamond growing and manufacturing from India to the world.

Pricing has become a major issue and there is a fear that supply of lab grown diamonds will overshoot demand. What is your opinion of arriving at a stable pricing index for the lab commodity and can you explain to us a pricing mechanism that can be evolved for the sector?

I don’t think pricing is something one must worry about as these are very early days to make such judgements on the industry. Per any economics, prices will only fall till the time supply exceeds demand. Today, awareness is limited and therefore demand has not seen a spurt yet. However this is rapidly changing each day. Research states that demand is likely to see an exponential growth mainly due to depletion of mines and supply constraints in natural diamonds and the only product that can fill the void of natural diamonds is likely to be lab grown diamonds.

It is estimated that lab grown diamonds will have to fill a void of nearly 160 million carats by 2030! That is a huge jump from 7 million carats that we are at today, over 20x in just 8 years.

But the supply strength has not scaled enough to reach 160 million carats in such a short span of time. There are only a handful players in the market that are growing diamonds and this has happened over the span of 15 years. This only goes to show that the technology is capital intensive and takes time to get the process right. As a result, the growth in supply, while inevitable, is unlikely to grow at a rapid rate.

At the same time, with increasing awareness and void created due to natural diamond constraints is going to rapidly increase demand for lab grown diamonds. In my view therefore, pricing will soon stabilize and will be on the rise in the near future. In the long run, like any other technology product (such as smartphones), the base technology or product will get commoditised and only brands built on the product (such as Apple/ Samsung) shall be able to enjoy premiums. I strongly believe that all the companies entering the industry should rather focus on establishing a market and a strong consumption base for the product through a brand.

Limelight has reached a leadership status concerning lab grown diamond business. What are the key factors that you would attribute this success to?

I do not belong to the gems and jewellery industry. I was away from India for almost 8 years, graduated from the London School of Economics, studied a short Economics Course at Harvard Business School, pursued an MSc in Finance at Imperial Business School, and then worked as an investment banker at Barclays, London. However, I always had the aspiration to be an entrepreneur and build a category that could focus on bringing the “India” story to the limelight. On one of my trips back home, I got a chance to visit the deep-tech labs of the Bhathwari Group in Surat producing the finest quality diamonds at a very large scale. I was completely in awe of the level of automation and efficiency of this cutting - edge technology that managed to establish the Group as one of the pioneers in the lab-grown CVD diamond industry. I felt an immense sense of pride to see how our country is progressing and I knew this was a story that needed telling. The decision to move back and build a brand around this product was a natural progression. And I founded Limelight Lab-Grown Diamonds as India’s first sustainable CVD diamond-studded jewellery brand in 2019.

Passionate of the fact that this technology has been indigenously developed, completely made in India, and grown to such a scale that India is now the leading exporter of these diamonds, I took it upon myself to bring this India story into the limelight.

My vision for Limelight is to establish itself as the first SUSTAINABLE luxury jewellery brand from India and create a luxury niche for lab-grown CVD diamond jewellery worldwide.

Inspiring, beautiful, and totally couture, yet easy on the ecology, through lab-grown diamond jewellery, I wish to give it back to mother earth and have taken it upon myself to add these sustainable diamonds to every conscious diva’s wish list.

In these 3 years, Limelight has managed to create strong waves in the gem & jewellery industry by building a differentiated product category in the class of luxury consumer goods through lab-grown CVD diamonds. Now recognized as the largest sustainable brand offering lab-grown CVD diamonds, Limelight’s efforts of bringing the true representation of these diamonds through education and promotion have received tremendous applause, including support from the Royal families of India who have been the prime custodians of the purest diamonds in the past too.

Recently Limelight has had a strategic arrangement with one of the largest jewellery manufacturers EMERALD jewellery group. What is the strategy behind collaborating with Emerald jewellery group and how do you think this partnership would help in increasing market share for lab grown diamond jewellery and create awareness?

Emerald Group has always been at the forefront of introducing new age technology advancements and lab grown diamonds are certainly the most promising innovation in the jewellery industry. Limelight Lab Grown Diamonds is backed by the world’s largest CVD diamond grower – the Bhathwari Group. The Group boasts of an annual production of 1.2 million carats, over 80% of India’s total production. This shall enable the Venture to provide abundant quantity and consistent supply of pure CVD diamonds. Both companies are very excited and optimistic as this partnership will allow them to drive far more impact across the globe by making CVD diamond studded jewellery available. This alliance will prove to be a game changer in the way the jewellery industry perceives the needs of its customers and how it caters to the market. With this collaboration, both firms are poised to exceed all expectations.

Tell us about your company's investments in infrastructure and resources and how important are these for expansion and growth?

Limelight belongs to a fully vertically integrated Group of Companies in terms of diamond production. Right from growing the diamond to cut & polishing, it all happens under the same group – the Bhathwari Group. This has proven to be our strength in providing consistent and abundant supply of top quality Type IIA diamonds to our customers. This, coupled with our recent venture with the Emerald Group enables us to be in an even stronger position of providing not just best quality diamonds but top quality 100% CVD diamond studded jewellery to our customers.

Lastly do you see India becoming a huge consumer market for lab grown diamond jewellery? If yes, what would be those factors that will drive consumer demand? Please also elaborate on the steps that can be taken for enhancing consumer education and knowledge?

Awareness on lab grown diamonds is spreading fast in India. Consumers are now more educated on these real non-mined diamonds. And contrary to common industry beliefs, with increasing awareness, consumers are also becoming more comfortable with the co-existence of lab grown diamonds with its mined counterparts.

The unique & independent personality of lab grown diamonds as a sustainable & environmentally friendly yet affordable gemstone is extremely well accepted in the millennial consumers and is increasingly reflecting in the sales of lab grown diamond studded jewellery across India.

We at Limelight have managed to increase our presence with over 65 partnerships PAN India making CVD diamond studded jewellery available in all major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Surat, Ahmedabad, etc.