Editor’s Note
This article explores Boram Group’s strategic push into the bio-gem market, moving beyond memorial applications to create commemorative products from bio-raw materials. It highlights an emerging niche where biotechnology intersects with personal sentiment and luxury goods.
[THE GURU = Reporter Lee Yeon-choon] Boram Group is accelerating its efforts to pioneer the biogem market using bio-raw materials. While Viagem is gaining attention as a ‘product for commemorating the deceased,’ the company is planning a business model that can assign meaning to all subjects worthy of commemoration, beyond just memorials, and is spurring its market entry.
Boram Group announced on the 10th that its manufacturing affiliate, Via Life Sciences, will formally introduce the biogem brand Viagem to the market and target both B2C and B2B markets. A biogem is an artificial gemstone with mineralogical characteristics—such as shape, color, and gemstone strength—identical to those of natural gemstones. It is made by extracting bio-elements from raw materials like the hair, cremated remains, umbilical cord, or nails of a deceased person and synthesizing 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 competitors, Boram Group’s biogem brand ‘Viagem’ is produced in a systematized, large-scale, advanced facility. All processes, from the various colors, shapes, and sizes desired by customers to the 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 like rings, necklaces, bracelets, and omage (commemorative plaques) can be exquisitely and beautifully crafted.
Chairman Choi Cheol-hong embarked on the Viagem gemstone business containing bio-elements back in 2007. With the concept of providing something to cherish forever, replacing the pain and longing of separation, he researched the technology for the entire process—from extracting bio-elements to synthesizing them with gemstones. This was completed after ten years of extensive R&D, including facility investment.
Viagem won the gold and special awards at the world-renowned ‘International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva’ in Switzerland in 2022, a first for the gemstone and jewelry industry. This award globally recognized the innovativeness and marketability of Viagem’s technology and design.
