Behind every great company is an origin story worth sharing. Liquid Diamonds, a tech-driven B2B diamond sourcing platform, is no exception. The brainchild of founder and CEO Kashyap Mehta, Liquid Diamonds serves as a diamond-sourcing co-pilot for its clients.
But how did this innovative company come to fruition?
Coming from a family of diamond manufacturers and being an engineer at heart, Kashyap built his first startup, Diamond Technology Solutions, in 2007. It provided ERP and e-commerce solutions for 150+ jewelers across 14 countries before spotting the need for innovation in diamonds.
During this entrepreneurial journey, Kashyap had a first-hand look at the inner workings of the global diamond industry and saw some glaring issues.
As he explains,
"For over 10 years, we had been building software for the diamond and jewelry industry. We understood the issues that are there in every part of the supply chain. And, all of these issues stem from a lack of price transparency and liquidity in the industry.”
In his interactions with the diamond industry stakeholders, Kashyap realized that the inefficiencies in the diamond trade are not only making the trade more cumbersome, costly, and inefficient but also holding it back from its true potential.
Some of the key problems Kashyap observed were:
The notable absence of efficient price discovery mechanisms was the most prominent problem. Most players depended on opaque price lists and discounts on the Rapaport List. This entailed cumbersome negotiations between the buyer and the seller, or worse, transactions happening way off fair market value.
Regardless of which part of the value chain you are in, it takes months for businesses to sell their diamonds. This lack of liquidity is costly as interest rates are high.
While most businesses in the trade used some sort of software to manage inventory, most of the trading still happened over the counter and required haggling over the phone. This was often complemented by a general aversion to relying on new technology in diamond sourcing.
Compared to sectors like finance, auto, and oil, the diamond industry lagged in attracting financial capital and investments to fuel innovation and growth.
As there had hardly been any incentive to change the existing processes, the industry lacked new innovations and technology compared to other global trades.
Clearly, the conventional processes were limiting efficiency, accuracy, and profits across the diamond value chain. Kashyap saw tremendous potential for improvement in the diamond industry by infusing modern technology.
Leveraging technology to bring greater transparency, liquidity, automation, and insights across the diamond value chain was one of the ways to change the status quo.
He saw an opportunity to reimagine age-old diamond trading processes using innovative solutions such as:
The goal was to prepare the diamond industry for the next phase of growth and value creation by increasing transparency, liquidity, and capital flows. Kashyap aimed to build an ecosystem where all players, from miners to retailers and wholesalers, could follow a sustainable business model and benefit from embracing change.
Today, Liquid Diamonds is revolutionizing diamond trading with an AI-driven proprietary platform designed to solve long-standing pain points.
Here's how the core features directly benefit diamond buyers and help them make better purchase decisions:
Powerful AI algorithms that continuously analyze millions of data points to determine fair market value pricing for each diamond. This removes human bias, market risks, and manual errors in pricing. It also helps to reduce inventory costs and increase liquidity.
Buyers can find the diamonds they need quickly and easily with automated tools that scour the markets for the best deals. Filtering across multiple inventories based on exact specifications not only saves valuable time and resources but also gives buyers first dibs on stones that come into the market.
A transparent and patented Reverse Auction system that allows buyers to name their price in the platform and sellers to bid on it. This levels the playing field and ensures buyers get the best possible prices and maximize profits.
Automated negotiation bots ensure buyers get the best deal amongst multiple sellers through a fair bidding process.
With Liquid Diamond’s White Glove Service, Every diamond is meticulously inspected on 40+ parameters by experts. Buyers get detailed reports to ensure they're making informed, high-quality purchases.
Liquid Diamonds integrates directly with buyers' existing ERP systems. This allows buyers to manage their entire diamond procurement process end-to-end through a single platform, from sourcing to inventory management.
By leveraging such technologies, Liquid Diamonds is bringing much-needed efficiency, automation, and transparency to diamond sourcing. This has the potential to boost both trading volumes and returns in the diamond industry.
Kashyap founded Liquid Diamonds leveraging his existing software company, Diamond Technology Solutions (DTS). Initially, they focused too heavily on building a large product before getting customer feedback. However, in hindsight, Kashyap realized a minimum viable product (MVP) approach would have been better, allowing for refinement based on user input. This meant rebuilding much of the platform based on lessons learned.
Now, Liquid Diamonds prioritizes tight iterations with users, releasing frequent prototypes to gather insights. This agile, customer-focused approach ensures they meet real needs within a changing market.
Combining deep industry knowledge with cutting-edge technology, Liquid Diamonds is reshaping the diamond industry while addressing the age-old pain points.
Buyers now benefit from:
The emphasis on customer feedback ensures Liquid Diamonds remains a dynamic solution, evolving to meet the industry's ever-changing needs and leading the way toward a more efficient and profitable future for diamond trading.
To see how Liquid Diamonds can be your diamond sourcing co-pilot, get in touch with us today!
