Lexington, MA-based Gemvara, an online jewelry customization marketplace, has raised $5.2 million in Series B funding, led by returning investors Highland Capital Partners and Canaan Partners, the company announced today. Gemvara, which changed its name from Paragon Lake in February when it revamped its jewelry store-focused business as a direct-to-consumer website, will use the new funding for marketing and improving customer experience. CEO Deborah Besemer stepped down last month, leaving founder Matt Lauzon in charge as the company looks for an executive with more e-commerce experience. The Series B financing brings Gemvara’s total funding pot to $11 million.
Author: Erin Kutz
Erin Kutz has a background in covering business, politics and general news. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Erin previously worked in the Boston bureau of Reuters, where she wrote articles on the investment management and mutual fund industries. While in college, she researched for USA Today reporter Jayne O’Donnell’s book, Gen Buy: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail. She also spent a semester in Washington, DC, reporting Capitol Hill stories as a correspondent for two Connecticut newspapers and interning in the Money section of USA Today, where she assisted with coverage on the retail and small business beats. Erin got her first taste of reporting at Boston University’s independent student newspaper, as a city section reporter and fact checker and editor of the paper’s weekly business section.
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