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SourcingDec 10, 2020
This Digital Gem Trading Platform Will Launch Early Next Year
Gembridge provides a secure business-to-business marketplace that verifies its members and stones from door to door.
The new Gembridge business-to-business trading platform is slated to launch in the first quarter of 2021.
Singapore—A new platform will launch early next year, aiming to provide a secure marketplace for gemstone trading.
The first quarter will see the official rollout of Gembridge, where verified members can buy, sell and consign stones via a secure and insured door-to-door service.
Behind the development of web-based Gembridge.com is industry veteran Tony Brooke, who has more than four decades of experience in the gemstone sector, as well as Nick Marrett and Mark Taylor, both of whom have more than 20 years of experience in the digital sector working with such companies as Google, Apple, eBay, Airbnb, American Express, Unilever and more.
It’s this combination of experience that the team believes sets them apart and will help make their product a success with trade members.
“We feel that we, more than pretty much anybody else, have got what it takes to really make this work,” Brooke told National Jeweler.
To register, new businesses are verified through an international KYC process, as well as a peer-review from existing Gembridge members.
After passing that process, industry companies can sell items with a listing on the platform, buy items through the showcase or list a requirement request for a specific item they’re looking for which other members can fulfill.
The items sold on the platform are shipped to members through Gembridge’s global hubs in Bangkok, Geneva, and Bahrain, where they are verified by a third party—the ICA GemLab in Bangkok, to start, but more labs are coming on board—to ensure the listing, initial gem report and stone all match.
ICA GemLab has even created a new verification report for the process with minimal turnaround time.
More hubs are also being added to Gembridge’s lineup as we speak; Brazil will be online next.
Interested parties also can opt for a secure viewing room at a hub through Brinks, where they can examine a stone, pay for it and walk away with it if they so choose.
Consignment is also an option as Gembridge provides an insurance policy allowing for that as well.
Gembridge takes a sales commission for each transaction—5 percent from the seller and 3 percent from the buyer.
In addition to partnering with Brinks for logistics, Anglo East Group for insurance, Ingenique Solutions for KYC/AML compliance and ICA GemLab for verification, Gembridge has also involved KPMG as corporate finance advisors, which put the business model together.
Gembridge is licensed to trade by
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Sponsored by
Singapore’s Ministry of Law in cooperation with the Financial Action Task Force, which is leading regulatory reforms across 200 countries, making it what the founders believe is the first regulated trading platform in the world.
It’s because of this licensing and the access to information they receive that they can perform a “bank-level” verification of potential members, as Marrett referred to it.
It also means Gembridge can offer members more services that might have been hard to access up to now, such as financing, as banks and other institutions are more likely to sign on to partner with a platform in which its members have been vetted to such a degree.
The team launched its Minimum Viable Product in July, enlisting 25 top players of the global gem industry to test its trading platform, including KGK in India, Diamrusa and Sant Enterprises in Thailand, Crown Color in Hong Kong, RareSource in North America, Berr and Partners in Switzerland, and Jureidini Gems & Jewellery in the Middle East.
The full platform will launch in early 2021; interested trade members can pre-register now.
It will serve the wholesale business-to-business market to start, but eventually will expand to include business-to-consumer trading in the third quarter of 2021, the founders said.
They are also planning to add a consumer-to-consumer aspect eventually for those wanting to sell heirloom jewelry, for example, but are still working that part out.
It’s because of this licensing and the access to information they receive that they can perform a “bank-level” verification of potential members, as Marrett referred to it.
It also means Gembridge can offer members more services that might have been hard to access up to now, such as financing, as banks and other institutions are more likely to sign on to partner with a platform in which its members have been vetted to such a degree.
The team launched its Minimum Viable Product in July, enlisting 25 top players of the global gem industry to test its trading platform, including KGK in India, Diamrusa and Sant Enterprises in Thailand, Crown Color in Hong Kong, RareSource in North America, Berr and Partners in Switzerland, and Jureidini Gems & Jewellery in the Middle East.
The full platform will launch in early 2021; interested trade members can pre-register now.
It will serve the wholesale business-to-business market to start, but eventually will expand to include business-to-consumer trading in the third quarter of 2021, the founders said.
They are also planning to add a consumer-to-consumer aspect eventually for those wanting to sell heirloom jewelry, for example, but are still working that part out.
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