The founders of Baunat wait. The resale of their start-up business to a large group will come in time. Founded ten years ago in Antwerp, in the heart of the Diamond Square Mile, this small business employing twenty-five people, including in the belgian city and in Paris, sells online solitary, rings and other bracelets in diamond.
Stefaan Mouradian and Steven Boelens got the idea while working at Blue Star, wholesale indian supplier of precious stones raw and cut. Together, they create Baunat drawing a little bit of the american Blue Nile, a pioneer in the online sale of jewelry bought in 2017 by a consortium of funds, including Bain Capital, for $ 500 million (440 million euros).
Short range and small price
The objective of the belgian entrepreneurs ? Sell without an intermediary of jewelry to millennials, this generation of consumers aged less than 30 years addicted to online trading, providing Surate, in the west of India. Because, as it sells a paint can, according to its RAL (color), its finish and its weight, “it is possible to sell a diamond on the Internet,” explains Dr. Mouradian. The standardization of this stone according to its weight, expressed in carats (1 carat = 0.2 gram), to its color-white, extreme yellow tinted, of its purity and its form (brilliant, marquise, pear, etc) making it easier to sell on screen.
Baunat offers its customers a short range and small prices, in particular for the models to present during a marriage proposal. The start-up gets it by signing the purchase of the stone with the diamond after its sale to the particular. Unlike jewelers, the company does not have to bear the costs associated with any stock of diamonds.