Diamond Standard Co., developer of diamond commodities, has closed on a $30 million investment round.
The investment is “designed to expand production capacity and accelerate distribution of the world’s only regulator- approved diamond commodities,” according to a press release.
The Series A round was led by Left Lane Capital and Horizon Kinetics. Additional participants in the round include Gaingels and Republic.co.
More from the release:
The raise comes on the heels of the launch of the Diamond Standard Fund, enabling investors to allocate to a new asset class – diamonds – through convenient shares, rather than holding physical diamonds directly. In September 2021, the firm announced a new headquarters on Fifth Avenue, overlooking the New York diamond district and conveniently located near the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). Last year it also announced agreements to develop diamond futures offered by MGEX via the CME Globex platform, and options via MIAX.
By positioning diamonds as a market-traded commodity, Diamond Standard unlocks a natural resource currently worth $1.2 trillion – more than all the world’s silver and platinum combined. With the recent launch of the Diamond Standard Bar and Diamond Standard Fund, additional production capacity is needed to meet rapidly growing investor demand. The firm is hiring aggressively, and building a new Bar assembly facility in collaboration with the International Gemological Institute. The firm’s diamonds are graded by the GIA and International Gemological Institute, and company operations are internally audited by Deloitte.
“Following 20% returns last year, the Diamond Standard Coin has continued to generate a positive return this year, while the S&P 500 is down 14% and bitcoin is down 50%. Investors need a new uncorrelated asset class, and this capital will enable us to increase capacity and expand our offerings,” said Cormac Kinney, Founder and CEO of Diamond Standard.
“The Diamond Standard offerings are a perfect fit for the contrarian, innovation, value and inflation protection goals of Horizon Kinetics and like-minded investors,” said Murray Stahl, Co-Founder & CEO of Horizon Kinetics.
“While many investors and startups over-indexed towards digital-backed assets, we got excited by real-asset backed stores of long-term value. Investors have typically held about 20% of market value for a given commodity. Diamonds have withstood the test of time, and thanks to Diamond Standard, investors finally have access to the asset class in a convenient, safe and trusted manner,” said Jason Fiedler, Managing Partner of Left Lane Capital.
Left Lane Capital has made investments into some of the most promising internet and consumer technology companies in four continents. The firm targets businesses at key growth inflection points and leads deals at the Series A to C stage.
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