In February 2021, JCK interviewed Aether Diamonds’ CEO and chief marketing officer about the fledgling lab-grown brand’s carbon capture technology, and its plans to enter the luxury lab-grown space.
What a difference a year makes. Earlier this month, Aether announced that it had completed an $18 million Series A funding round led by Helena, a Los Angeles–based think tank dedicated to finding solutions for global issues, and the money would be used to further its mission to remove carbon from the atmosphere and, in the process, grow diamonds.
Carbon capture, like carbon removal, aims to solve the issue of climate change by taking carbon dioxide, the primary cause of global warming, out of the air. In Aether’s case, that CO2—extracted directly from the air by its partner, Climeworks—is then converted into lab-grown diamonds that are set into jewelry manufactured and handset within the five boroughs of New York City.
Aether’s cofounder and CEO Ryan Shearman, an alumnus of David Yurman, recently spoke to JCK about the progress the company has made since we last spoke, not only in securing more funding, but also in its plans to engage with the industry.
“When I was at David Yurman, lab-grown diamonds weren’t a thing,” Shearman said. “People didn’t know they existed. Fast-forward 10 years, the growth of the lab-grown sector has outpaced even the most aggressive forecasts from when we started, which is gratifying in a sense. This is the direction we’re going in, and we’re not going to retreat.”
In a statement, Henry Elkus, founder and CEO of Helena, said that his firm’s interest in Aether is part of a larger campaign to “move beyond underground sequestration and create viable commercial use cases for captured carbon.”
“Aether has done this by creating an entirely new category of diamond using direct air carbon capture technology,” Elkus wrote. “Beyond supporting an industry critical to the climate crisis while simultaneously addressing multiple problems in the diamond space, Aether has forged an astounding product that stands alone.”
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Bring me up to speed on what’s happened at Aether since we spoke a year ago.
It’s kind of crazy when I think back to all the progress that has happened. We shipped our first-ever diamonds made from air to consumers at the end of Q2. And from there it was an exercise in ramping up diamond capacity. Last year, we had just one diamond reactor. Then we went to two, three, five. Some reactors are now in the process of being brought online. It’s all part of a massive build-out, a slow and steady building of the brand and diversifying the product line. We’re about to launch our first non-bridal collection. Last year was mostly bridal work, custom work, ironing out operations.
What are your plans with wholesale?
We will be introducing our first loose diamond wholesale program this year. We’re quite excited about the role that will play. We’re establishing relationships largely with independents and hopefully other brands. But it’s too early now to specify.
Do you plan on selling loose stones direct to consumers?
We are in the process of making loose stones available and will be leaning in on that front. Our offering online will probably skew more toward higher-end goods.
What sizes are you achieving now?
Up until now, 2.5 carats was more a function of choice than any constriction on what we’re able to grow. We wanted to make sure there was demand. Fortunately, we’ve seen interest in broader sizes. We’re going to be expanding our top sizes quite a bit before the end of the year.
Is Jenna Housby still leading Aether’s design team?
Jenna has been our principal designer since we started the company. She’s led the process for developing our new non-bridal collection launching this spring. And she gets into custom design for bespoke clientele. We’re excited to grow our design team.
Can you offer any details on that non-bridal line?
It’s a tad too early, but very soon we will.
Tell us about the Series A funding Aether just secured.
The Series A round in traditional venture parlance is the first round of institutional financing. Not friends and family or angel investors who make investments out of their personal accounts, but rather larger investors who come in and write much larger checks.
Helena is going to serve as our champion to address societal elements. We’re a mission with a company—everything we do serves the mission, and that comes down to removing as much carbon from our atmosphere as we possibly can. The sub-points are addressing negative externalities that are environmental or societal in nature.
For example, as mines close, what can we do for the livelihoods of people who depend on mining for income? One idea is regenerative farming in those regions. If you can bring carbon capture technology to them and monetize carbon credits, you now have new economic incentives. If these mines close and there’s nothing else for these people to do, what’s going to happen? Millions of people in Africa are potentially impacted.
And then working as a partner for companies in the direct capture space that are doing something with that CO2. Turning that into diamonds—the net economics are really compelling. There’s an opportunity for direct carbon capture to do what solar has done. It used to be superexpensive and prohibitive to have solar panels, but solar today is competitive with other energy sources. And that’s because there were dollars put into advancing research and development. And an established infrastructure.
We’ve heard people trying to make diamonds out of all sorts of different materials, even down to banana peels. We’re expecting to see more of this. And we are proudly serving as this categorical leader.
How did the Series A come about?
I can’t recall if it was Matt or Henry from Helena who reached out, having read an article about us in Vogue. They reached out, told us out of the gate they could definitely leverage their networks to bring in other strategic investors and customers. We’re already seeing the fruits of this relationship. Cash is important, don’t get me wrong. But the intrinsic value of working with them has been important. They’re able to source impressive candidates for our board. As we define our place in the luxury diamond category, we’re thinking about how we might align with other potential brands.
We got off the ground with Helena, got connected to SOUNDwaves, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s sustainability vehicle. As we look to commercialize our technology globally, other investors are continuing to support us through multiple rounds. It’s good to know we have people in our corner.
How are you planning to commercialize the technology?
To expand our manufacturing footprint, it wouldn’t make sense to produce all our diamonds here and ship them abroad. We believe we’d have satellite ventures in other markets within three to five years.
What carbon offsets are you buying to mitigate the residual emissions, and how do you vet them?
We sourced some of our operational offsets with Natural Capital Partners. When we need to move something from point A to point B, whether it’s manufacturing equipment or finished jewelry, we can’t control the emissions. All shipping and logistics emissions are offset. And not just by finding the cheapest offsets; we’re looking to work with frontier carbon capture and storage solutions like Climeworks and Charm Industrial. We will only work with companies that have been vetted by trusted independent third parties. Charm Industrial—they are permanently sequestering carbon underground.
Anything else you can tell us about your third-party verification efforts?
We just announced we received B Corporation certification. We also work with SCS Global Services on life-cycle analyses. We don’t want to be here making environmental claims, we want to make environmental statements. There are companies in this area greenwashing left and right, and we want to make sure we go above and beyond the minimum requirements. We are the first and only diamond producer to achieve B Corp certification, and we’re so proud of it.
Top: Photo courtesy of Aether Diamonds
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