Brilliant Earth Group, Inc.

Who owns Brilliant Earth?

Brilliant Earth Group, Inc. is a public company owned by its shareholders. Co-founders Beth Gerstein and Eric Grossberg retain significant stakes, and Gerstein is CEO.

Is Brilliant Earth Group a public company?

Yes. It listed on Nasdaq in September 2021 under ticker BRLT.

What was Brilliant Earth's revenue in FY2025?

$437.5 million. Trailing-twelve-month revenue through Q3 2026 was approximately $451.8 million, with Q3 2026 net sales of $112.8 million.

Where is Brilliant Earth Group headquartered?

San Francisco, California, where it was founded in 2005. Its showrooms span major US cities.

Does Brilliant Earth sell lab-grown diamonds?

Yes. Lab-grown stones are a major and growing share of its assortment, sold alongside conflict-free verified natural diamonds, with the choice left to the customer.

Gerstein and Grossberg founded the company in 2005 after encountering the engagement ring market's sourcing problem firsthand: the Kimberley Process had addressed conflict diamonds at the wholesale level, but no major US retailer could show an end customer where a specific stone originated. They built an online platform that presented diamonds with sourcing claims at the product level, starting with Canadian mined goods, recycled precious metals, and vintage stones.

The business grew through the late 2000s on the strength of search traffic and word of mouth among ethically minded couples, proving that six-figure-consideration jewelry could sell online. Showrooms followed as appointment-based showrooms rather than traditional retail, cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, and later expansion to roughly 40 locations.

The September 2021 IPO priced shares at $12 on Nasdaq and established the company as the first major pure-play public fine jewelry e-commerce stock of the direct-to-consumer era. Proceeds funded showroom expansion and marketing.

The post-IPO years coincided with the lab-grown diamond transformation of the industry. Lab-grown stones went from niche to dominant in new engagement ring sales, collapsing average price points industry-wide. Brilliant Earth, an early seller of lab-grown, rode the volume shift while watching average order values compress, a dynamic visible in its Q3 2026 results: orders up 5.6% to 52,720 while AOV fell 3.1% to $2,140.

Strategy through 2025 and 2026 emphasized diversification beyond bridal: fine jewelry grew to 16% of bookings by Q3 2026, and wedding and anniversary bands delivered a record quarter. FY2025 closed with $437.5 million in net sales.

The Up-C structure deserves a plain-language note because it affects how results read. Legacy holders retained LLC units convertible into public shares, so reported net income splits between the public company and those non-controlling interests, which is why Brilliant Earth's earnings releases show two figures that look superficially contradictory.

Showroom economics round out the structure: locations are appointment-oriented rather than inventory-heavy, so the physical footprint scales consultation capacity more than working capital, an asset-light version of brick and mortar consistent with the made-to-order model.

Sustainability is the company's brand foundation rather than a reporting exercise. Its standards cover conflict-free natural diamonds with documented sourcing, lab-grown alternatives, recycled gold and platinum, and a giveback program supporting mining communities.

Important caveat: these are company-defined standards, not independent certifications. The company is not B Corp certified, and its 2017 litigation showed the gap between marketing language and verifiable provenance is contested territory. It has responded with tightened chain-of-custody documentation.

The 2017 lawsuit alleging some diamonds marketed as ethically sourced lacked verifiable mine-level provenance was the defining scrutiny event, settled out of court. It forced more precise language around what "beyond conflict free" means and remains the reference point when critics question the sourcing claims.

Beyond that episode, the company operates in a category with periodic FTC attention to jewelry marketing claims, particularly around lab-grown versus natural disclosure. Its record is clean of major regulatory action as of November 2026.