US jewellery etailer R2Net - JamesAllen announced yesterday that is has secured $25 million in growth funding from Israel Growth Partners (IGP), a private equity investment firm founded by Moshe Lichtman and HaimShani and backed by leading financial institutions including banks, insurance companies and pension funds. 

“The money raised will be used to fund R2Net’s aggressive growth strategy,” the company said in a statement. “As part of this strategy, the company recently acquired and consolidated the operations of Segoma Inc. -- an innovative provider of advanced diamond imaging technology; and Brio Animation Studio Ltd. -- a groundbreaking visualisation and augmented reality studio.”

Also, R2Net’s ecommerce brand -- JamesAllen.com -- recently launched a store-in-store joint venture with Sears, one of the largest brick and mortar retailers in the U.S.

JamesAllen.com, the company explains, seamlessly integrates smart phones, tablets and PCs, as well as virtual kiosks, which enables the digital generation to easily shop for diamond jewellery in an interactive, personalised and familiar environment.

In addition to its consumer business, R2Net operates a business-to-business (B2B) platform that serves the online diamond sales of giants such as Signet Jewelers-  “the largest jewellery retailer in the world with 3,500 retail stores worldwide”.

In order to tie in the entire diamond industry span, R2Net has built a sophisticated ecommerce and supply chain platform, including diamond and jewellery manufacturers, retailers and consumers. R2Net’s B2B platform utilises advanced imaging and visualisation technologies to capture and display diamonds and jewellery at a quality that surpasses a jeweller’s loupe, thus enabling manufacturers to dramatically cut the lead times and costs of global diamond trade, the company avers.

“I’m excited to have IGP, one of Israel’s premier private equity funds, share and invest in realising our vision and would like to welcome Moshe Lichtman and HaimShani to our board,” said Oded Edelman, R2Net’s founder and CEO.“I look forward to benefiting from IGP’s partners’ operational experience in scaling up global technology companies.”

“R2Net is a great example of the type of technology companies that IGP is focused on,” said Moshe Lichtman, the general partner at IGP. “Its ground-breaking technology, its strong momentum in the marketplace and Oded’s vision and unique skills make R2Net a prime candidate for global category leadership in a huge market that’s ripe for disruption.”