By Nancy Dahlberg / ndahlberg@miamiherald.com
Mela Artisans is social entrepreneurial to its core.
Seeing firsthand that master artisans in India were losing their livelihoods because they lacked a global market for their products, Navroze Mehta and his daughter Sonali Mehta-Rao created Mela Artisans in 2010. For the first couple of years, the Boca Raton-based social entrepreneurial for-profit company, then called MyMela, ran a website that brought the handicrafts to customers worldwide while helping the artisans earn their livings.
Business grew steadily, and hundreds of artisans in remote villages were getting orders. But the small team knew that the more the company was able to sell, the more artisans it could help. And all that starts with building a brand that would be in high demand.
Today, Mela Artisans is well on the way to doing that. The company’s home and jewelry collections, all handmade in India, are in stores such as Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s around the United States as well as in high-end department stores in Canada and the United Kingdom. The collections are also sold on MelaArtisans.com and include intricately designed jewelry in a mix of metals; bone-inlay home accessories such as trays, photo frames and jewelry boxes; and hand-embroidered pillows.
“It’s a luxury lifestyle brand that blends traditional handcrafting techniques with contemporary design,” said Mehta, Mela Artisans’ CEO, who was raised in India. “We work closely with artisans who create high-quality products, promoting social uplift in their communities. That is what we are all about.”
Sales tripled last year, and the company is on track to exceed that this year, said Mehta, who has previously founded a half-dozen companies, mainly in healthcare. In March, Mela Artisans closed on $3 million in venture capital funding to help it grow.
Although the company has always been powered by passion, the pathway has not always been easy. About a year ago, Mela began a rebranding journey that started with hiring a specialist in the field with deep roots in India — Dipali Patwa, who had recently been working with the Martha Stewart brand, as well as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein.