Jewelry Firm with Unique Business Model Raises $5M, Will Open Physical Stores

Published

6 years ago

September 3, 2018

INSTORE Staff

It rolls out new products weekly.

Direct-to-consumer jewelry brand Mejuri has closed a $5 million financing round led by London-based venture firm Felix Capital.

Launched in 2015, Mejuri was founded by Noura Sakkijha and Maj Masad with the goal to create a brand for millennial women. Prior to this round, Mejuri had raised only $1 million in funding, according to a press release from the company. Still, the brand has sold 150,000 pieces of jewelry in the past year alone.

“We’ve done a lot with little, and we consider this efficiency and attention to spend to be one of our biggest strengths,” said CEO Sakkijha, who serves as CEO. “I am inspired by entrepreneurs like Katrina Lake, who took Stitch Fix to its initial public offering with only $40 million in funding. It’s a great example to help entrepreneurs realize that they can achieve substantial growth without seeking large amounts of capital prematurely.”

Also participating in the new Series A round were Real Ventures, Incite Ventures, BDC Capital Women in Technology Fund and Dash Ventures.

The company refreshes its collections regularly and pioneered the “drop model” in the traditional fine jewelry industry, according to the release. Instead of large seasonal releases, Mejuri introduces new products contextualized with a new narrative every Monday.

“The frequent drops also keep the company in constant communication with its community to challenge the long-established belief that fine jewelry is an occasional purchase,” according to the release. “Mejuri’s key strategy has been to continuously engage customers and micro-influencers to establish direct one-on-one conversations through social media, email, and SMS.”

With the Series A funding, Mejuri aims to further its relationships online and connect with more customers in-person.

“We’re thrilled to have more capital to extend our brand to physical stores over the next few quarters,” Sakkijha said. “We’ve recently opened our first location in Toronto, with the next one being planned in New York City, and have been excited to connect with our customers and have them experience the brand IRL. I’m looking forward to meeting more of our customers in person.”

Sasha Astafyeva, principal at Felix, said: “Mejuri is a brand we have been watching for some time – their mastery of the digital space has engendered their impressive success to date and we are very happy to be able to support them to take the next step in their growth. We are proud to have worked with the likes of Farfetch, The Business of Fashion and goop since their early days so have high hopes for Mejuri.”

Retiring? Let Wilkerson Do the Heavy Lifting

Retirement can be a great part of life. As Nanji Singadia puts it, “I want to retire and enjoy my life. I’m 78 now and I just want to take a break.” That said, Nanji decided that the best way to move ahead was to contact the experts at Wilkerson. He chose them because he knew that closing a store is a heavy lift. To maximize sales and move on to the next, best chapter of his life, he called Wilkerson—but not before asking his industry friends for their opinion. He found that Wilkerson was the company most recommended and says their professionalism, experience and the homework they did before the launch all helped to make his going out of business sale a success. “Wilkerson were working on the sale a month it took place,” he says. “They did a great job.”