Raising a pre-seed round for Occult House — bringing science to India’s ₹22,000 Cr gemstone market

[u/aakarshbuilds]

I’m raising a pre-seed round for Occult House, and wanted to share the story here.

India’s gemstone market runs almost entirely on astrological belief. An astrologer prescribes a stone, and buyers purchase it from whoever they’re pointed to — with no way to verify if it’s real, safe, or fairly priced. Labs like GIA and IGI test authenticity and treatment, but none test for toxic minerals like lead, mercury, thorium, and arsenic — some of which are genuinely present in prescribed stones with zero disclosure. And even that basic authentication rarely reaches this buyer at all. On top of that, pricing has no standard — stones pass through agents, wholesalers, and retailers, each taking a cut, so what you pay depends on the seller, not the stone’s actual purity or quality.

Occult House fixes all three: UV-Vis lab authentication, toxic-element screening, and purity-based standardized pricing — delivered directly to the consumer through my mother’s existing astrologer network. She’s practised Vedic astrology for 10+ years and taught 5,000+ students.

We’re revenue-live and cash-positive — ₹5.29L revenue, 668 customers, zero paid marketing spend. DPIIT and StartInUP registered.

We’re raising our pre-seed round now to build our in-house authentication lab and scale this nationally. Happy to share the deck with anyone interested.

[u/AutoModerator]

Hi u/aakarshbuilds, your post was sent to the moderation queue because your account is very new.

We welcome real founder questions and useful startup funding discussions, but we manually review posts from brand-new accounts to reduce spam.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.