Leading Indian jewellery chain, Kalyan Jewellers said it has acquired the online jewellery retailer Candere to strengthen its presence in the raplidly growing online jewellery market. The jeweller did not disclose details of the sum involved in the acquisition.

Kalyan said it was purchasing the equity held by Singularity Strategic, the family office of Brijesh Chandwani and Subram Kapoor in Candere and would subsequently also acquire the shares of founder-promoter Rupesh Jain in a phased manner.

Jain will continue to be founder & chief executive of Candere, and the online company will retain its existing branding with the addition of a line, ‘Powered by Kalyan Jewellers’. The jeweller said that it would also offer some of its popular brands and sub-brands such as Glo, Antara, Anokhi, Nimah, etc, through online sales

Further, the jeweller said it would additionally invest an unspecified sum in widening the reach of Candere. Currently, the online retailer has operations in India, USA and UK, and Kalyan plans to take it to the West Asian market including the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar.

The jeweller said that it would aim to create a robust online-offline hybrid customer experience in its target markets.

Rajesh Kalyanaraman, executive director at Kalyan Jewellers said, "Candere’s recent foray into Britain and the US will help us augment our ambition of becoming a global brand and offer our customers an integrated model that will provide flexibility and enhance their shopping experience.”

He added that Kalyan expects that the fast growing online jewellery segment will contribute 5-7 per cent to its top line over the next five years.

Jain said,"Kalyan is a formidale jewellery brand and Candere will be able to scale up rapidly by using Kalyan's strong supply chain network and physical presence. The integration will also provide up selling and cross-selling opportunities and bolster reveneues.”

As reported earlier, global PE fund Warburg Pincus has recently upped its earlier investment in Kalyan by Rs 500 crore.