Mejuri CEO and co-founder Noura Sakkijha
Mejuri, a Toronto- and Buenos Aires-based direct-to-consumer fine jewelry brand, recently announced it raised $23 million in Series B funding from New Enterprise Associates according to TechCrunch. Mejuri is a female-led team as 80% of the staff are women and the company was co-founded by CEO Noura Sakkijha and COO Majed Masad. And Mejuri has been attracting the interest of millennial women who desire more affordable jewelry rather than ones encrusted with diamonds and precious stones.
Sakkijha is a third-generation jeweler and is a former industrial engineer. And TechCrunch pointed out that she raised this round while seven months pregnant with twins. Sakkijha told TechCrunch that being visibly pregnant was actually an advantage for finding the right partners.
“I was nervous about how people would perceive me,” said Sakkijha via TechCrunch. “If you have an issue with a pregnant, female CEO–Mejuri is not for you. My kids will always be a priority and part of the story. Knowing this left me feeling more vulnerable–but also liberated. It’s also introduced me to an amazing community; I’ve met so many amazing female investors and founders whose humor and shared experiences have been a huge relief. Seeing other women model that you can have both–not perfectly, not effortlessly–was a relief that I didn’t have to sacrifice my drive for motherhood.”
Imaginary also participated in the company’s Series B. Imaginary partner Natalie Massenet told TechCrunch that Mejuri is set to disrupt the jewelry industry through supply chain standards that appeal to consumers like conflict-free and sourced from socially responsible suppliers while still maintaining affordable prices.
The jewelry is designed and made by Mejuri directly to women primarily online and two showrooms. Mejuri points out that traditional jewelry target men for gifting, which makes the higher markups more acceptable. But their model puts the purchasing decisions back with women. About 75% of Mejuri’s customers are buying for themselves.
Follow-on backers Felix Capital, BDC Capital, Incite Ventures, and Dash Ventures also joined this round. Including this round, Mejuri has raised more than $29 million to date.
With this funding round, Mejuri is going to expand more offline and push beyond its biggest markets in the U.S. and Canada plus the 33 countries that products are shipped to.
Mejuri now has a team of 120 employees with 25 people constantly watching for trends and consumer feedback. Plus the company receives valuable feedback from its Instagram following of more than 422,000.
What Mejuri does it set up “drop” models so that only a small quantity of products arrive every week rather than releasing large seasonable batches of products. This way the company can translate customer sentiments into designs.
“Mejuri’s mission really hits home for me,” added NEA partner Vanessa Larco. “I noticed a shift in trends when none of my friends wanted to go to any of the traditional fine jewelry companies to purchase jewelry anymore, and I realized a lot of those big brands were in trouble.”
In terms of the numbers, Mejuri said that 30% of its monthly transactions are from returning shoppers and 70,000 customers are on the waitlist for its products. And the company saw 20 million visitors to its website and it launched 1,500 designs since it launched. And the revenues for the company quadrupled year-over-year for the fourth consecutive year.
