AOJ E-NEWS: CaratLane Trading, which operates CaratLane, an online jewellery portal, has seen a 34% decline in its reserves to R122 crore in 2015-16. The company, which was recently acquired by Titan Company, had held R185 crore as reserves in the previous year, according to a filing with the Registrar of Companies.

The company had posted a net loss of R63 crore as reported by the jewellery e-tailer during FY16, falling 46% over the previous year.

CaratLane, which competes with Ratan Tata backed online jewellery retailer Bluestone.com, had registered a loss of Rs 43 crore in 2014-15. However, its total revenues during FY16 have shown a moderate jump of 12% to R141 crore as against R126 crore in the previous year despite a big rise in its expenses. Its total expenses went up 15.3% to R195 crore as against R169 crore in the previous year, data available with Registrar of Companies revealed.
The company has also witnessed a 26.3% decline in its total assets at R162 crore during the year as compared to R220 crore in the previous year.
Titan Company, the largest branded jewellery maker in the country, acquired a majority 62% stake in Carat Lane last year for R357 crore at a lower valuation of R576 crore. Its valuation stood at R716 crore in December 2014.

Founded in 2008, Caratlane deals in gold, silver and diamond jewellery. It was founded by Srinivasa Gopalan, an IT entrepreneur and founder of Lister Technologies and Mithun Sacheti, scion of Jaipur Gems, which has stores in Mumbai, Chennai and Coimbatore.

CaratLane had first raised funds from Tiger Global in 2011. It got funds from them till December 2014 when it raised Series D round of funding. Subsequent to Titan acquiring majority stake, Tiger Global exited the company last year. CaratLane’s rival in the online jewellery retail Bluestone.com is backed by Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Saama Capital.
Subsequent to selling a majority stake to Titan, the company has inducted Bhaskar Bhat, managing director of Titan Company, as director on the board. It has also inducted Venkataraman C K and Subramaniam S as directors of the company.

The Chennai-based Carat Lane Trading Private Limited is engaged in the business of designing, manufacturing, trading and retailing of gems and jewellery. It has been growing in personal and gifting jewellery in the low-ticket jewellery segment. It sells in the price range of R20,000-R25,000.


Courtesy: FE