Match Off Between Lab Grown Diamond Companies at Shark Tank India

In Shark Tank India Season 5, episode 5, viewers saw a high‑stakes showdown between two lab‑grown diamond jewellery brands—Emori and True Diamond.

While natural diamonds are mined from Earth’s mantle with heavy machinery, lab diamonds are produced in a controlled laboratory setting using more sustainable methods. As it involves no habitat destruction and less pollution of water and air, these lab diamonds are considered eco-friendly. 

Though a lab-diamond brand, Jewel Box had appeared earlier on Shark Tank India; this was the first-ever match‑off in this category, a concept in which similar-category brands pitch side-by-side.

Founders of both lab-grown diamond startups walked into the tank to pitch their positioning, branding, financials, and growth strategies.

Emori

Gurgaon‑based Emori, founded by Arushi Jain in September 2023, was the first to start the match-off, with an ask of ₹75 lakhs for 1% equity (₹75 crore valuation).

Arushi positioned Emori as a lab‑grown diamond jewellery brand for millennials and Gen‑Z, offering designs in 18-Carat and 14-Carat purity, backed by a strong design‑led, online-first playbook. 

The company offers over 600 ring designs online, making Emori one of the largest online design catalogues in the lab‑grown segment, according to the founder.

Arushi also explained that her products come with a third-party certificate, a lifetime warranty, and transparent pricing to add validation and trustworthiness. 

At the time of the show, Emori had a single offline store in Gurgaon, with 58% sales from the store and 42% online. The company plans to open more stores in Noida and Delhi.

Financially, Emori had ₹4.5 crore revenue last FY, with FY25 expected to reach around ₹13 crore.​ The company operated with a gross margin of ~35%, with EBITDA already +0.8% last year and projected to hit +6% this year.

True Diamond

True Diamond was represented by co-founders Parine Shah and Darash Mehta, with an ask of ₹1.08 crore for 1% equity (₹108 crore valuation).

Founded in January 2024, True Diamond positioned itself as a “content‑first, ring‑specialist” brand, not just a lab‑grown‑diamond‑centric one.

They started with lab‑grown diamonds but pivoted away from the category, which had become cluttered and hard to differentiate.

Now they present themselves as a diamond‑ring brand that offers a mix of lab‑created, natural, and other stones, with ~95% of sales still lab‑grown and 5% natural.

The company offers titanium rings, black diamond rings, champagne gold rings, speciality-cut diamonds, and other variations with innovative, bold, cheeky designs aimed at young, urban buyers.

True Diamond posted revenue of ₹11.7 crore in FY24‑25, with a loss of ~₹60 lakh.​ In FY25‑26 (up to November), revenue had already reached ~₹11 crore, with a projected ₹22–25 crore for the full year, though still at a loss of ~₹2.25 crore.

The founders also mentioned their earlier investments of approximately ₹35 crore (₹8.35 crore and ₹25.92 crore) from prior rounds, including from Titan Capital. 

The Outcome: Emori vs True Diamond

By the end of the episode, the Sharks, Anupam Mittal, Amit Jain, Namita Thapar, Aman Gupta and Ritesh Agarwal had to decide whether to invest in both lab-grown diamond startups, one of them, or reject. 

Emori struck a chord more strongly with the Sharks for its bootstrapped, high‑execution, high‑turnover model, while True Diamond was questioned for its clarity and positioning. 

Emori bagged the deal, with Anupam Mittal investing ₹1.5 crore for 3% equity and Amit, Namita, and Ritesh investing ₹50 lakh each for 1% equity each (total ₹3 crore), giving the company a valuation of ₹50 crore.

True Diamond had to walk away empty-handed. 

Wrapping Up

The match‑off episode again put a spotlight on how India’s lab‑grown diamond jewellery market is evolving from a cheaper alternative to mined diamonds into design‑led, brand‑driven categories.

In Season 3, a lab-grown diamond company, Jewel Box, was featured, which secured an all-shark deal in which Aman, Vineeta, Peyush, Ritesh, and Radhika invested ₹2 crores for 6% equity.

With increasing awareness of the lab-grown diamond jewellery market and many players entering, brand differentiation, repeat‑rate focus, and storytelling will matter as much as the product itself.

The match-off battle of lab-grown diamond startups on Shark Tank India encapsulates that shift.