India will become the largest jewellery market in the world from 2026, surpassing the US, says Ankur Daga, Founder and CEO of Angara, a family-owned, D2C fine jewellery brand.
“Right now, the US and India are at $85 billion each (jewellery market). India is growing a lot faster, except for these last two months (June and July). The Indian jewellery market is growing at roughly 10-15 per cent a year. It’s projected to kind of maintain that growth rate,” he told businessline in an online interaction.
On the other hand, the US jewellery industry is growing at 4-5 per cent. This is the reason why India is set to become the number one in the jewellery market. The global jewellery market’s revenue is about $400 billion, he said.
Physical stores launch
India’s tremendous growth is one of the reasons for the Jaipur-headquartered jewellery firm, which operates out of the US, to plan the launch of its first set of physical stores in India. These will come up in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Jaipur.
Ankur Daga, Founder and CEO of Angara
“We’ll have four stores in the first quarter of 2026 accordingly,” said Daga, who launched Angara along with his wife Aditi in 2005.
Currently, Angara serves customers online. Right now, 20 per cent of its sales are in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru — the reason for opening physical stores in these cities. It could launch its physical store in Chennai in the second or third quarter of 2026, he said.
The Indian and US jewellery market sizes are identical, though US GDP is 7x higher. “That explains how important jewellery is for Indians. What’s fascinating is that the people here are savvy about coloured gemstones, even though it’s only 2 per cent of the market. The level of education about what gemstones are is extraordinary,” said the company’s founder and CEO.
Gemstones demand surging
“We’re unique in the sense that we’re focusing primarily on coloured gemstones. Most of the others in India, as well as the traditional jewellers, are focused on gold jewellery and then diamond jewellery. This is because they’re much easier to sell,” said Daga, adding that the supply chain for coloured gemstones is “extraordinarily complex”. Angara, for example, sells 40 different gemstones.
On the other hand, the demand for coloured gemstones is increasing worldwide quickly. Over the past decade, their share in their global market has increased from less than 2 per cent to 10-20 per cent with the annual growth being consistent.
“In the US, demand for gemstone engagement rings has increased from less than 5 per cent of the market to 15 per cent in the past decade. A lot of celebrities are opting for gemstone engagement rings. And that’s kind of percolating down through the rest of the population,” he said, adding even in China, the coloured gemstones are hot.
On the gemstones that are in great demand, he said citrine, emerald, and diamonds. However, in India, the consumption is broader in terms of different types of gemstones compared with the US.
Sister brand for horoscopes
“In the US, sapphire and magnolia are the top by far. In India, octamarine is outselling sapphire, emerald, and ruby. And pearl is very hot as well because of astrological reasons,” said Daga.
Horoscopes or Janampathris are playing a big role in the purchase of coloured gemstones, and Angara is planning a launch of a sister brand soon for the astrological market.
Angara’s hopes to do well in the Indian market also because the Indian government has begun hallmarking 9-carat gold. The Bureau of Indian Standards has also brought in its regulations.
“This is going to be a major structural change. India historically has been a 22-carat market, and then with studded jewellery became an 18k and 14k market,” said Daga.
When 9k is in full effect, a lot more pieces of jewellery that have diamonds and gemstones will be available. Since the expenditure on the gold component will be less, Indian consumers will likely spend on gemstones and diamonds, he said.
Aiming $1 b by 2030
The company has about 400 employees on its rolls, with 250 of them in Jaipur. Bangkok is its second-largest office. Angara’s global headquarters is in Los Angeles, while it has offices in Ireland, the UK, Australia and Canada. “We’re just opening offices in Dubai, Singapore and Tokyo as well. It will help cover 70 per cent of the market,” said Daga, who wants the company’s revenue to top $1 billion by 2030.
The company crossed the $100 million revenue mark in 2022, after reaching the $10 million mark in 2016. A reason for the company’s rapid progress is that it claims to be as transparent as possible.
“And jewellery as an industry has historically been built on opacity or the lack of transparency, so we’re taking a very different approach from that perspective,” he said, adding local jewellers sell glass or glass-filled or diffused or various other treatments that essentially make a gemstone worthless.
Stating that his firm is “vertically innovative” helping to grow at a hyper-fast rate, he said it buys rough gemstones from around the world from mines.
“We’ll cut and polish those gemstones, design the jewellery, manufacture it and then retail it over the web. We took some industry capital at the beginning. Since then, we bought back all shares, and they’re just growing through internally approved cash flows,” the company’s founder and CEO said.
The demand for diamonds has declined by 2-3 per cent annually over the past demand, primarily because of the advent of lab-grown diamonds. The demand for lab-grown is rising rapidly.
Lab-grown diamonds demand
On the other hand, coloured gemstones have outperformed other asset classes such as gold, silver and platinum. “Over the last 10 years, depending on the gemstone, the annual CAGR is anywhere from 15-21 per cent,” he said.
On the impact of lab-grown diamonds, the company’s CEO and founder said it has witnessed tremendous growth after 2018 when the US Federal Trade Commission approved it. They are now 90-95 per cent than natural diamonds, he said.
Angara is “agnostic” towards lab and natural for diamonds and coloured stones. “We launched lab-grown diamonds 18 months ago. But in this period, they have made two-thirds of our diamond jewellery business in the US. In India, it is 75 per cent,” he said.
Published on August 6, 2025
