Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Oct 4: When Ishendra Agarwal decided to enter the jewellery business in 2019, he anticipated a shift in consumer behaviour, believing Indians would increasingly view jewellery as an everyday accessory rather than just a traditional investment.
This vision led to the creation of GIVA, a Bengaluru-based fine jewellery brand co-founded by Agarwal, Nikita Prasad, and Sachin Shetty. Starting with an initial investment of just Rs 10 lac, the company has rapidly scaled into a business valued at nearly Rs 5,000 crore.
However, the initial phase was challenging. After Agarwal finalized the idea and the team launched the GIVA website in May 2019, they expected immediate traction. Instead, the company struggled, receiving only one or two orders a day for the first three months despite extensive marketing efforts.
The breakthrough arrived when GIVA was onboarded onto a gifting portal. Orders immediately surged from a trickle to nearly 250 in a single day, forcing the founders to work around the clock to pack shipments and rapidly depleting their initial inventory.
Entering a highly competitive market against established brands like CaratLane, Bluestone, and Melorra, Agarwal identified a crucial gap: affordability. Realising that selling expensive gold online posed a significant barrier in India, GIVA focused on silver. This allowed the brand to offer products positioned as premium yet highly accessible.
To combat the inherent trust deficit in online jewellery purchases, GIVA introduced authenticity certificates, lifetime replating services, and a 30-day return policy.
The next major hurdle was offline expansion. Despite having strong digital marketing expertise, the founders lacked physical retail experience. Agarwal, alongside co-founder Aditya Labroo, spent months learning the intricacies of location selection, inventory management, and staff training. Today, GIVA operates a robust network of approximately 300 physical stores. The brand has also partnered with domestic manufacturers and expanded its product line to include emerging categories like men's jewellery.
This aggressive expansion is clearly reflected in the company's financials. According to data from Tracxn, GIVA's consolidated revenue surged by about 87 percent to Rs 523.35 crore in FY25, up from Rs 279.60 crore in FY24. As the company continues to prioritize scaling, it remains loss-making, reporting a consolidated net loss of Rs 72.35 crore in FY25, compared to Rs 58.65 crore the previous year, with an EBITDA of negative Rs 51.30 crore.
Simultaneously, the brand's valuation has witnessed a meteoric rise. Valued at around Rs 1,165 crore in April 2023, GIVA's valuation jumped to Rs 3,995 crore following its Series C round in June 2025. A subsequent Series C extension in February 2026 pushed the post-money valuation to approximately Rs 4,904.85 crore. As of July 28, 2026, the company's valuation stands at Rs 4,924.55 crore.