【South Korea】Boram Group Fully Enters the Bio-Jewelry ‘Viazem’ Market

Boram Group, a total life care service company, is fully entering the jewelry market using bio-materials. The group’s manufacturing subsidiary, Vialife Sciences, officially announced on the 10th that it is launching the bio-jewelry brand ‘Viazem’ into the market and entering both B2C and B2B markets.

Bio-jewelry is an artificial gemstone with mineralogical characteristics identical to natural gemstones in terms of shape, color, and strength. Boram Group explained that it extracts bio-elements from raw materials such as a deceased person’s hair, cremated remains, umbilical cord, and nails, and synthesizes them with gemstone powder. It is known to have superior quality with higher transparency and clarity compared to natural gemstones that may contain inclusions.

Unlike other companies, the bio-jewelry brand ‘Viazem’ is produced in a systematic, large-scale, advanced facility. All processes, from the customer’s desired color, shape, and size to packaging, are completed with in-house equipment and technical staff. Prices range from millions to tens of millions of Korean won depending on size. Not only gemstones but also jewelry such as rings, necklaces, and bracelets, as well as commemorative plaques, can be exquisitely and beautifully crafted.

Viazem is being created in the form of Lab Grown Diamonds, which have recently gained attention. ‘Lab Grown Diamond’ is a term combining ‘LAB’ (meaning laboratory) and ‘GROWN’ (meaning cultivated). It refers to artificial or cultured diamonds grown in a laboratory from natural diamond seeds through technological development, which is the same principle by which Viazem is created.

Choi Cheol-hong, Chairman of Boram Group, embarked on the ‘Viazem’ business, which involves gemstones containing bio-elements, back in 2007. With the concept of providing something to cherish forever in place of the pain and longing of separation, he researched the entire process from bio-element extraction to synthesis with gemstones, completing it after a decade of extensive R&D, including facility investment.

Boram Group’s new business brand ‘Viazem’ won the Gold Medal and Special Award at the prestigious ‘International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva’ in 2022, a first for the gemstone and jewelry industry. This award globally recognized the innovativeness and marketability of Viazem’s technology and design.

Currently, there are a few companies in Europe and overseas handling bio-jewelry similar to Boram Group’s Viazem, but they produce bio-jewelry in relatively small-scale facilities. In contrast, Viazem is manufactured in large-scale advanced facilities and is the only one in the industry that issues a certificate analyzing the bio-elements, enhancing customer trust.

Viazem can be applied to all subjects worthy of commemoration and memory, such as family, funeral services, weddings, childbirth, religion, and pets. In particular, for memorial services, Viazem is expected to create synergy with the funeral services of Boram Sangjo, a major affiliate. Viazem can be utilized not only in funeral halls and columbariums but also in wedding malls, postpartum care centers, temples, churches, and award ceremonies.

Meanwhile, Boram Group is planning a business model that can assign meaning to all commemorative subjects beyond memorializing the deceased and is preparing for market entry, although Viazem is primarily noted as a ‘product for commemorating the deceased.’