Our Story

Why I’m building Aranqa

Hi, I’m Cherika, founder of Aranqa.

I grew up around jewellery.

My father started his business in the late 1990s, and like most first-generation entrepreneurs, his business was a huge part of his life. So naturally, it became a part of ours too.

Our dinner-table conversations were about customers, designs, quality, vendors, stock, working capital, the next season. I saw jewellery everywhere. I knew how it was made. I knew what good craftsmanship looked like.

And yet, I never thought I would build in jewellery. Or build at all!

I studied finance, built a career in it, and eventually moved into the world of consumer businesses and e-commerce. I spent years looking at why people buy what they buy, how brands grow, and what was changing in the way India shopped.

It was only when I took a break from my career that I found myself back at my dad’s office.

I started spending time on the shop floor. Talking to his customers. Watching what they picked up. What they rejected. What they asked. What made them trust a piece.

And I started looking at the jewellery being sold online with the same lens.

Something felt very wrong.

I knew what went into making a well-finished piece. I had grown up watching that craftsmanship. And then I would see jewellery online being sold for ₹200 or ₹300.

The photography didn’t help. Jewellery was often shot under heavy studio lighting where you couldn’t really see the colour, plating or finish. Hence, the details you would instinctively look at in a store looked impossible to judge on a screen.

And there was already a perception that all imitation jewellery was cheap, disposable and “use and throw.”

Around the same time, I got married.

And, as you can imagine, I probably visited more jewellers in those few months than I had in my entire life.

I realised just how much money jewellery can represent.

And I started thinking about what else I could do with that money. Build something of my own. Invest. Buy a home. Travel. Build a life.