Fiona Diamonds is redefining India’s fine jewellery industry by combining AI-powered design, personalised craftsmanship, and lab-grown diamonds. In an exclusive interaction with JewelBuzz, Parag Agrawal and Saurabh Agrawal, Co-Founders of Fiona Diamonds, shared insights into their entrepreneurial journey, the inspiration behind building India’s first AI jewellery designer, the rapid evolution of consumer preferences, and their vision for creating a more accessible, sustainable, and technology-led future for the jewellery industry.

Q1. What inspired both of you to build Fiona Diamonds, and what gap did you identify in the jewellery market? As Co-Founders, how do your individual roles complement each other in driving the company’s growth and innovation?

Parag: I entered the jewellery trade at 22, and very early I saw a fundamental gap — fine jewellery in India was priced for a privileged few, and the customer had almost no say in what was made for them. Diamonds were sold as inventory, not as personal stories. We started Fiona Diamonds to change both of those things: to make certified, high-quality diamonds accessible through moissanite and lab-grown diamonds, and to put the customer at the centre of the design process. Sustainability became the third pillar — luxury should not cost the earth, literally.

Saurabh: Our roles are genuinely complementary. Parag brings over two decades of deep jewellery-industry expertise — sourcing, craftsmanship, merchandising and the instinct for what the Indian customer wants. I come from 20-plus years in enterprise technology, so I own the digital side: our D2C engine, data, automation and the AI design platform. Parag makes sure every piece is a jeweller’s piece; I make sure the experience around it is a technology company’s experience. That combination — jeweller plus technologist — is really the DNA of Fiona.

Q2. Looking back at your entrepreneurial journey, what have been the biggest challenges and the most rewarding milestones?

The biggest challenge was being early. When we began advocating lab-grown diamonds, the category barely existed in the Indian consumer’s vocabulary. We spent years educating customers — explaining that a lab-grown diamond is chemically, physically and optically identical to a mined one, and that certification standards are the same. Convincing the trade was often harder than convincing customers. Building trust in an online-first model for a high-ticket, emotional purchase like diamond jewellery was another mountain: people were used to buying diamonds from their family jeweller, not a website.

The rewarding milestones mirror those challenges. Watching lab-grown move from scepticism to mainstream acceptance — and knowing we helped drive that shift — is deeply satisfying. Launching India’s first AI jewellery designer was a defining moment. Our appearance on Bharat ke Super Founders, where we raised Rs 17.5 crore, validated the model in front of the whole country. But honestly, the most rewarding moments are smaller: a customer’s sketch or idea becoming a finished piece they wear every day.

Q3. Take us through your product portfolio. What is your USP?

Our portfolio spans the full spectrum of fine jewellery: lab-grown diamond solitaires and engagement rings, earrings, pendants, bracelets, tennis jewellery and everyday diamond wear, alongside moissanite jewellery for value-conscious buyers and an 18kt gold vermeil line that brings the Fiona design language to more accessible price points. Every diamond we sell is certified, and every piece can be made to order.

Our USP is customisation at scale, powered by AI. “Your Idea. Our AI.” is not a tagline — it is how we operate. A customer can walk in with a thought, a photograph, or a rough sketch, and our AI design platform converts it into photorealistic renders in minutes, which our craftsmen then bring to life. Combine that with lab-grown pricing — typically a fraction of an equivalent mined diamond — full certification, and a sustainability story the new generation genuinely cares about, and you have a proposition no traditional jeweller currently offers.

Q4. How is Fiona Diamonds blending traditional jewellery aesthetics with contemporary design preferences?

India’s relationship with jewellery is emotional and cultural, and we never lose sight of that. Our design library draws heavily on traditional motifs — temple and heritage-inspired patterns, polki-style aesthetics, sacred and figurative pieces — but executes them with contemporary sensibilities: cleaner lines, lighter weights, wearability for everyday life, and modern settings that suit western and Indo-western wardrobes alike.

AI actually helps us bridge the two worlds. Because every piece can be customised, a bride can take her grandmother’s design and reinterpret it in a lighter, modern silhouette; a young professional can take a classic solitaire and personalise it with details that are entirely her own. We are not asking customers to choose between tradition and modernity — we let them blend both, in their own proportion.

Q5. Fiona Diamonds describes itself as India’s first AI jewellery designer. What inspired you to integrate artificial intelligence into the jewellery design process? How does the “Your Idea. Our AI.” concept work, and what kind of customization can customers expect?

Saurabh: The inspiration came from a very real bottleneck. Custom jewellery traditionally requires multiple rounds between customer, designer and CAD artist — weeks of back and forth before the customer even sees what their idea looks like. With generative AI, we realised we could collapse that cycle from weeks to minutes. As a team with deep tech roots, it was a natural step, and we moved early enough to become India’s first AI jewellery designer.

The concept works exactly as it sounds. The customer shares an idea — a description, an inspiration image, a sketch, even a memory they want captured. Our AI generates photorealistic design renders reflecting their brief; the customer iterates on styles, stones, metals and proportions in real time; and once a design is approved, our craftsmen manufacture the piece with certified lab-grown diamonds. Customers can personalise virtually everything — stone shape and size, metal and colour, engraving, motifs, even highly personal figurative pieces like a beloved pet, a deity, or a car they love. AI has also transformed our own operations, from design ideation to marketing creatives, which is how we run one of the most efficient inventory and ad-spend models in the industry.

Q6. The lab-grown diamond segment is witnessing rapid growth in India. What consumer trends are driving this shift? How has consumer perception of lab-grown diamonds evolved over the past few years?

Three trends are driving the shift. First, value consciousness without compromise — younger buyers want a bigger, better-quality stone for their budget, and lab-grown delivers exactly that. Second, sustainability and ethics — this generation asks where products come from, and a diamond grown above the ground, with no mining footprint, answers that question well. Third, the desire for self-expression — lab-grown pricing makes customisation and everyday diamond wear realistic, so diamonds are no longer reserved only for weddings.

Perception has evolved dramatically. Five or six years ago, customers asked, “Is this a real diamond?” Today they ask, “What certification does it carry and what design can I make?” The conversation has moved from legitimacy to choice. Grading by independent certification bodies, wider retail availability, celebrity adoption and honest education by brands like ours have normalised the category. Interestingly, we now see customers who can comfortably afford natural diamonds choosing lab-grown deliberately — as a considered, modern decision rather than a compromise.

Q7. What opportunities do you see in India’s rapidly growing direct-to-consumer (D2C) jewellery market? As you expand your omnichannel presence, how do you see the balance between online sales and physical retail evolving?

India’s D2C jewellery opportunity is significant as consumers increasingly discover jewellery online despite the market remaining largely unorganised. Digital platforms enable nationwide reach, customer education on lab-grown diamonds, and AI-powered customisation, with most demand originating online. However, jewellery purchases still rely on trust and physical experience. A hybrid model—combining online discovery and design with experience stores for trial and purchase—offers the strongest competitive advantage and is expected to shape the future of jewellery retail.

Q8. The jewellery market is becoming increasingly competitive. What differentiates Fiona Diamonds from other lab-grown diamond brands?

The company’s advantage rests on three pillars: an early leadership position in lab-grown diamonds and moissanite, giving it deep sourcing and customer expertise; AI-driven operations across design, customization, inventory, and marketing, delivering strong inventory turns and advertising efficiency; and customization as its core offering, enabling customers to co-create unique, certified, sustainable jewellery at accessible lab-grown price points, differentiating it from catalogue-first competitors in the market.

Q9. How do you see the future coexistence of natural diamonds and lab-grown diamonds within the Indian jewellery industry?

Natural and lab-grown diamonds are expected to coexist with distinct roles. Natural diamonds will remain heirloom, collectible and investment-driven, while lab-grown diamonds will dominate engagement, everyday wear, gifting and self-purchase due to their affordability and identical appearance. India is well positioned as both a global diamond processing and lab-grown manufacturing hub, enabling competitive pricing and global leadership while empowering consumers with greater choice.

Q10. Has your appearance on Bharat ke Super Founders significantly impacted brand awareness, customer acquisition, or sales?

Absolutely — it was an inflection point. Beyond the Rs 17.5 crore we raised on the show, the visibility was transformative. Millions of viewers discovered Fiona Diamonds and, just as importantly, discovered the lab-grown category itself through our story. We saw an immediate and sustained lift in brand searches, website traffic, walk-ins at our stores and inbound enquiries — including from customers in cities we have not yet entered physically.

The show also changed the quality of conversations. Customers now arrive with trust already established — they have seen the founders, heard the story and understood the model, so the journey from enquiry to purchase is shorter. It validated us with investors and partners as well. For a brand whose biggest historical challenge was educating the market, national television did years of category education in a single season.

Q11. What innovations in product design or customer experience can consumers expect from Fiona Diamonds over the next few years?

Fiona Diamonds plans to significantly enhance its AI jewellery designer with photorealistic previews, voice- and photo-based design generation, and advanced personalised creations. The company is expanding into sacred, statement and men’s jewellery while strengthening its bridal and solitaire collections. It is also improving the omnichannel experience through virtual try-ons, AI consultations, faster made-to-order delivery, more experience stores, and AI-driven inventory management to deliver better value and quicker fulfilment..

Q12. Looking ahead, what is your long-term vision for Fiona Diamonds, and where do you see the brand in the next five years?

Our vision is to make Fiona Diamonds the most loved custom jewellery brand of the new generation — the name that comes to mind when anyone in India thinks of designing their own jewellery. In five years, we see a truly national omnichannel presence with experience stores across India’s major cities, an AI design platform that has become the industry benchmark, and a meaningful international footprint, taking Indian craftsmanship and Indian technology to global customers.

Beyond scale, we want to lead the industry’s mindset shift — proving that luxury can be personal, accessible and sustainable at the same time. If in five years every young couple believes their engagement ring should be designed by them rather than picked from a catalogue, and every wearer knows their diamond carries no environmental debt, we will have built something far bigger than a jewellery company. That is the legacy we are working towards.