Chris Blakeslee has experience at Athleta and Alo Yoga. Kendra Scott will remain on board as executive chair and chief visionary officer.
Online Retailer James Allen Secures $140M in Funding
Private equity firm Francisco Partners is investing in the bridal jewelry and loose diamond e-commerce site.
New York--Private equity firm Francisco Partners has sunk $140 million into JamesAllen.com, an online seller of bridal jewelry and loose diamonds.
The funds will be used to innovate the e-tailer’s online consumer shopping experience, including further enhancing its diamond and jewelry visualization technologies, developing new distribution formats and expanding its jewelry product offerings.
JamesAllen.com features a selection of nearly 150,000 loose diamonds and hundreds of ring settings, allowing consumers to design or customize their jewelry, and also offers a virtual showroom and 360-degree Diamond Display Technology.
The e-tailer is owned by R2Net, which also owns and operates Segoma, DMarket (Diamond Market) and Brio Animation Studio.
Through its Segoma global photography centers, R2Net provides 360-degree high-definition photos of diamonds to diamond polishers, and then displays them on loose diamond site DMarket and JamesAllen.com.
Francisco Partners specializes in investing in technology companies and has put money into more than 175 companies since it launched more than a decade ago.
Other companies it has invested in include Quantros, a management solutions company for the healthcare industry, web analytics company Webtrends and data protection company Barracuda.
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