Brilliant Earth
- 🦄Became a unicorn2021
- 📈Peak valuation$1.03 Billion ’21
- 💔Became a Unitard2022
- 💸Last valuation~$124M
How it happened
Brilliant Earth is a digital-first jewelry retailer built on ethically sourced diamonds and lab-grown stones, selling engagement rings online and through a fast-growing set of showrooms. Backed by Mainsail Partners, it went public on the Nasdaq in September 2021 at roughly a $1.03B market value, just clearing the unicorn line. As spending on big-ticket jewelry cooled and competition intensified, growth stalled and the stock slid almost 88%, leaving it a small-cap worth around $130M by 2026. Glassdoor reviews across the post-IPO slide describe a company straining under breakneck showroom expansion — chronic understaffing, high turnover and constant reorganizations — with employees citing a tightening focus on the bottom line, trimmed perks and grueling sales targets as morale cooled with the stock.
Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.
Source: stockanalysis / Macrotrends / Nasdaq (digital-first ethical-jewelry retailer backed by growth investor Mainsail Partners; Sept 2021 Nasdaq IPO at a ~$1.03B market cap; slowing demand and margin pressure cut the stock ~88%; market cap ~$0.13B in 2026)
