Precious gems analyst Bellerophon Gemlabs has reached another level thanks to a robot developed in collaboration with Luxembourg-based engineer Bradley Elsbury, who praises the grand duchy’s ecosystem.
A robot arm, developed over an unusually short period of 5 months, now evaluates gems in-house at the company’s offices in Paris. It does so at the rate of 7,000 per day, while Bellerohpon’s operations in Bankgkok process 22,000 per month, or around 1,100 per day.
Before any of this was possible, founder Martial Curti started the business, in his words, through hustling rather than funding. He needed five machines and reached agreements with several merchants to take theirs, offering them in exchange for free tests and access to any of the machines he had.
Curti was also able to buy them after generating enough profit. Pre-paid services were the other pillar of this venture’s early stages. Clients could pay in advance $100,000 worth of services for a year and get a 50% discount.
“Our clients send for us from down the street. You still need armed guard and bulletproof cars, but they just have to do 20 metres instead of two kilometres.”
Martial Curti, founder of Bellerophon
Being seen and being known
Bellerophon went international before setting foot in Luxembourg. The gem business is, by its nature, a global one and Thailand was an easy choice to set up headquarters for the company. About 90% of gemstones pass by the Asian country to be cut and polished, estimates Curti.
The business’ other office, in France, however, is much more of a statement. At 16 Place Vendôme, the gem lab is just a couple of footsteps from the likes of Chanel and Chaumet. Being this close to their clients and in a place that is usually reserved for very high-end jewelry retailers shows was a conscious choice.
Set it and forget it
It was also in Paris that the now-director of research and development at Bellerophon, Bradley Elsbury, met Curti through a mutual friend. Speaking over a beer, the two made a bet with a significant sum of money on the line.
The US-born engineer ended up winning the bet, solving a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) problem that the gem lab’s founder had pondered over for a year. And the two began working together. From their collaboration was born the aforementioned robot which helped the company take a big step forward in its operations.
“We were able to put an entire lab on a desktop. We have four machines that are just compacted into this small space where you can plug and play. Set it and forget it. And I think that’s the next version of gemology.”
Bradley Elsbury, Luxembourg-based engineer behind the project.
Next step: the grand duchy
The Luxembourg-based engineer is also one of the big reasons Bellerophon will set up shop in the grand duchy. The company, currently pending approval, will be focused on research and development. And Bellerophon has already reaped the benefits of Luxembourg’s business ecosystem. For Elsbury, there is a certain proximity between businesses thanks to the size of the country. “It’s more well connected in Luxembourg to bring in, like in we call it, industry 4.0,” he says.
After Luxembourg, the company has its eyes set on having a global outreach without needing to have a physical presence. Here, technology is the answer again. In this case, a machine would allow a technician in a Parisian lab to assess a gem from a distance. This can be as far as Sri Lanka for example, where many precious stones are being mined.
The precious stone industry is likely to keep its prominence. It has been a popular choice for the wealthy who want to store some of their capital and even make its value grow. Robotics are here to bring the industry forward, and Luxembourg has somehow found a way to be part of the picture. And that, right on the cusp of a technical revolution.
Editor’s note: This article first appeared on Forbes Luxembourg here.
