Diamond Foundry Value Hits $1.8B After Fundraising

RAPAPORT... Diamond Foundry has raised $200 million to bring production up to "mining" levels, giving the lab-grown maker a valuation of $1.8 billion, it said Wednesday.The Series C investment from Fidelity, which completed at the end of March, will help Diamond Foundry lift annual output to 5 million carats at its factory in Washington state by the end of 2020, a company spokesperson said in an email to Rapaport News. It's also exploring new sites in the US, Europe and the Middle East."This is the first time that this quality of diamond is produced at mining scale," Diamond Foundry CEO Martin Roscheisen told the Financial Times earlier this week. The extra production will serve the jewelry and semiconductor sectors. Vrai, Diamond Foundry's consumer jewelry brand, "continues to see rapid growth and has expanded to China and Europe," the spokesperson added. The company also plans to use the funds for research into new technological applications in markets ranging from cloud computing to electric cars.Diamond Foundry, which counts movie star Leonardo DiCaprio among its financial backers, has raised a total of $315 million since its launch, it noted.Image: Rough lab-grown diamond. (Diamond Foundry)