HB Antwerp Celebrates 2021 Success with ‘Year in Review”

Antwerp, February 9, 2022 – HB Antwerp, the entrepreneurial natural diamond start-up, is celebrating the success the company achieved in 2021 with the release of its “Year in Review.”

This year, HB Antwerp continued combining cutting-edge technology with strategic partnerships to reshape the way diamonds are sourced, crafted and sold. HB and its growing roster of talented diamond experts flawlessly pursued HB’s mission of raising the savoir-faire of the largest diamond ecosystem in Europe to new heights of perfection.

View HB Antwerp’s “Year in Review” infographic here.

 Noted among HB Antwerp’s 2021 milestones are the creation of the most comprehensive diamond ecosystem in Europe, the expansion of operations in Botswana, the launch of HB Academy, the launch of the HB Innovation Lab, and the launch of Signum – the first luxury brand born in the Metaverse – which sold out an initial round of crypto art diamond NFTs in less than three minutes.

“The past year was a momentous time of growth and opportunity for HB Antwerp, from launching new ventures to investing in the people and technology that are the foundation of our company. I look forward to continuing to create beauty and push the boundaries, embracing transparency at every stage of our business,” said HB Antwerp Co-Founder and Managing Partner Rafael Papismedov. “We want to express our gratitude to all of the brilliant and hardworking men, women and organizations, in Belgium and Botswana, who collaborated with us over the last year and all they helped us achieve.”

In 2021, HB Antwerp began new collaborations with a number of notable companies and organizations, including: Microsoft; Next Decade; Blockchain Solutions; Comate, a Belgian engineering company; WomHub, a South-African engineering incubator; the Royal Antwerp Football Club; and Botswana International University Of Science And Technology.

Continuing its commitment to innovation, HB Antwerp developed several new technologies in 2021, including: Signifeye, a microscope to analyze polished diamonds; Signum Droid, an automated polishing robot; and Hyperloupe, a scanner, marker and microscope for high-carat diamond. A number of new projects are coming up in 2022, thanks in part to a 500,000 euro grant from the Flemish government.