FOUNDERS JOURNEY

Entrepreneur duo - Ritesh Badaya and Prashant Sharma - Co-founders of Nirvana Gems and Jewels, met in a Pune college while pursuing a language course in German.

If a friendship could lay the foundation of a profitable business, Ritesh and Prashant set the perfect precedent of how trust and understanding could pave the way for a success story.

When Ritesh went for college in 2003, he started exploring the market of Pune and noticed the potential for an authentic jewelry brand like the one his family was running back in Jaipur. So as the idea took seed in Ritesh’s mind, he considered his options and discussed it with Prashant however, at that time Prashant who had no interest in setting up a business, had plans to move to Germany for further studies. However, he couldn’t follow through with his plan for further studies and returned to Jaipur in 2005 where he started a business in the tourism sector due to his love for the German language. The two friends kept in touch, supporting each other in their own ways.

Sometime later, Prashant met german couple in Agra and pitched to them a proposal for a jewelry business with Ritesh. They got them onboard and visited Germany, where they collaborated with a few designers. They managed to sell their first batch of products and got Euro 5 of the total business trip profit. The amount may haven’t been much, but it laid the foundation of what would turn out to be a successful partnership.

The two friends again parted ways to go their separate paths, until Ritesh approached Prashant with a proposal to launch a heritage jewelry brand. Given their history and bonding, it wasn’t long before Prashant decided to join Ritesh. The duo launched the company in December 2012, but officially started operations in 2013 by dealing in jewelry made of gemstones, gold and silver. and, since then there has been no looking back. After a lot of challenges in their journey they have taken Nirvana Gems and Jewels to the top in a short span of time.