Founder & Managing Director Divine Solitaires
A Changemaker to Diamond Retail
Building a global brand that is ‘Proudly Indian’!
Jignesh Mehta has been revolutionizing the diamond solitaire buying experience for consumers in India and globally since he founded Divine Solitaires in 2006 with his brother Shailen Mehta – both first-generation entrepreneurs.
Having spent their formative years in Ahmedabad, the brothers moved to Mumbai to setup a business of cutting and polishing diamonds, Jignesh then travelled to Australia in the 1995 to pursue post-graduation in Marketing from the University of Western Sydney. While scouting for potential Australian buyers, he was surprised to be told by each one – “We don’t buy Indian goods!” Being a progressive businessman and someone who took great pride in his country and his work, he got down to finding the root cause of the rejections and changing that mindset. He discovered that while India was the manufacturer of 93% of diamonds, the market for precision cut solitaires was dominated by Israel and Indian diamantaires were more focused on optimizing production costs rather than customer experience.
For consumers, buying solitaires in India was riddled with several pain points – confusion among diamond buyers related to quality and pricing; lack of trust and transparency for jewellers, despite the certifications; the absence of top-class, personalised service; and most importantly a brand experience that could imbibe confidence and trust in the consumers and provide a uniform nationwide solution for them.
So, the brothers set up the latest technology infrastructure at their factory and hired the best craftsmen to cut and polish the stones so that they were at par, or even better than the best solitaires in the world. Later on, Hitesh Mehta, of H Dipak & Co, a visionary diamantaire and a mentor to the brothers would see great potential in their vision and back them as co-promoters in 2015 and bring in a competitive edge in sourcing rough diamonds.
He likes to say “Diamonds are not only forever, it is also for everyone” and with that vision he set out to create a brand of diamonds that would be everyone’s favourite choice to make their promises and commitment to loved ones with. Jignesh’s challenge was to change the way diamonds were sold in India’s traditional and unorganised solitaire market. Demystify the buying process and assuring customers of the right quality at a fair and uniform price was the key.
Divine Solitaires has embraced all the lessons and learnings that Jignesh has picked up over two decades in the industry. Under Jignesh’s persistent direction, Divine Solitaires is the first diamond jewellery brand in the world to introduce a standard and transparent pricing index for its solitaires; it is the first and only brand of give a 123 parameters quality guarantee certificate which goes beyond any lab certificate to guarantee the highest quality and therefore, it is the only diamond jewellery brand that allows its customers to take a loan against its solitaires as a guarantee; the first to insure each of its solitaries and offer easy buyback and upgrade. It is the first to make Hearts & Arrows cut as standard where every diamond is precisely cut to create the perfect Hearts & Arrows pattern that is the hallmark of perfection. And it is the only brand to design, curate and create jewellery that is specially designed to enhance the beauty of solitaire diamonds.
As an industry stalwart, Jignesh’s vision is to offer consumers a uniform brand service and experience to customers and in doing so he is empowering traditional family-jewellers across the country and giving them the edge with Divine Solitaires. He works closely with independent jewellers who think out-of-the-box, are progressive and have a fire in their belly to do something different from their contemporaries for their customers.
Since its launch almost two decades ago, Divine Solitaires has served over 100,000 customers, and still counting. It is poised on cusp of explosive growth with mission to bring the joy of natural diamonds to all.
