Diamonds are a girl's best friend. Diamonds are forever. Big girls need big diamonds. You've heard all the sayings about diamonds, but there's a question you need to answer: Does all of this hold true when it comes to lab-grown diamonds?

The lab-grown diamond industry is growing quickly, in large part because of competitive pricing and an environmentally sustainable production process. But these "jewels" can never be the real thing.

Diamond Foundry is one of the biggest names in the lab-grown diamond industry. Based in San Francisco, the company produces lab-grown diamonds comparable in quality to natural diamonds but more eco-friendly because they don't require mining.

Founded in 2012 by Martin Roscheisen and Jeremy Scholz, the company secured roughly $315 million from investors such as Fidelity Investments, Sun Microsystems Inc. and the one and only Leonardo DiCaprio.

Lab-grown diamonds will never be the same as those that come from the ground, but Diamond Foundry is doing its best to make them comparable - and nearly impossible to detect.

The company uses the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method to grow diamonds. In this process, a natural diamond shard is placed in a plasma reactor for roughly two weeks. The produced diamond is nearly indistinguishable from natural diamonds in all aspects but avoids the environmental drawbacks of diamond mining.

Other big-name players in the synthetic diamond market include:

  • Element Six
  • Applied Diamond Inc.
  • Scio Diamond Technology Corp.
  • Tomei Diamond Co. Ltd.
  • Pure Grown Diamonds
  • New Diamond Technology
  • Washington Diamonds Corp.
  • CENTAURUS Diamond Technologies Inc.
  • Crystallume
Are You Ready To Invest In Diamonds?

Just as DiCaprio invested in Diamond Foundry and its lab-grown diamonds, everyday investors have the opportunity to do the same with the real thing.

Diamond Standard launched the world's first regulated diamond commodities, transforming diamonds into an investable asset class with a mission "to benefit investors by establishing diamonds, through innovation and standard-setting, as a liquid hard asset, like gold."

The company is built on these principles:

Fairness

  • Only purchase conflict-free diamonds (Kimberley Process-certified).
  • Buy from vendors registered with the International Gemological Institute (IGI) and the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).
Transparency

  • Regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Consistency

  • Every coin and bar has a consistent set of investment-grade diamonds.
  • Each diamond's provenance is audited and authenticated on the blockchain.
  • Both the DiCaprio-backed Diamond Foundry and Diamond Standard are proof that the diamond industry has come a long way over the years. No one knows what's next, but it's likely to be exciting regardless of what happens.