Honestly, the diamond world used to be a black box. You’d buy a stone, and if you were lucky, you got a certificate that vaguely promised it wasn't "blood-soaked." But the actual journey? Where it was dug up, who polished it, and how much of that cash actually stayed in the country of origin? Total mystery.
That started changing in 2020. A group of industry veterans decided the old way of doing things—basically a handshake-and-secrecy model that had lasted since the 15th century—was dead. Boaz Lev was right at the center of that explosion. As a co-founder and Managing Partner of HB Antwerp, Lev didn't just want to sell jewelry; he wanted to rewire the entire "mineral infrastructure" of the planet.
Most people see a diamond and think about romance. Boaz Lev sees data points. Over 3,000 of them per stone, actually.
Why the HB Antwerp Model Actually Matters
It’s easy to dismiss "transparency" as a corporate buzzword. We've all seen it on annual reports. But what Lev and his partners (Oded Mansori, Shai de Toledo, and Rafael Papismedov) built is a bit more hardcore than a marketing slogan.
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Basically, they created a "closed-loop" ecosystem.
Usually, a diamond travels through dozens of middlemen. A miner sells to a wholesaler, who sells to a cutter in India, who sells to a trader in Israel, who sells to a brand in New York. By the time it hits the shelf, the price is inflated, and the "story" of the diamond is just a guess.
HB Antwerp flipped it. They buy rough stones—specifically the big, high-value ones—directly from the Karowe mine in Botswana (owned by Lucara Diamond). Then, the stone stays inside the HB "capsule." It never leaves their sight until it's a finished product.
The Tech Behind the Sparkle
Boaz Lev brings a heavy background in law and finance to the table, which is probably why the company’s focus on compliance feels so airtight. They aren't just using old-school loupes. They’ve got a partnership with Microsoft using blockchain to create an immutable ledger for every single stone.
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Think of it like a digital passport. You can see:
- The exact GPS coordinates of where the rough stone was found.
- Every laser scan and 3D model created during the planning phase.
- The data from the Fenix, which is a proprietary robot that can polish diamonds way faster than traditional methods.
It’s kinda wild. They’ve essentially turned a centuries-old craft into a high-tech manufacturing operation.
The Botswana Connection: It’s About Equity
You can’t talk about Boaz Lev without talking about Botswana. For a long time, African nations were treated like supermarkets for raw materials. Dig it up, ship it out, and let Antwerp or Mumbai make the real money.
Lev has been vocal about "catalyzing equity." HB Antwerp’s deal with the Botswana government isn't just a purchase agreement; it's a partnership. In fact, President Mokgweeti Masisi has praised the HB model as a blueprint for how Africa should handle its natural resources.
Why? Because HB Antwerp pays the miners based on the final polished price, not the estimated rough price. That’s a massive shift. It means more money stays in Gaborone. It led to the opening of HB Botswana, a local facility where they’re training Batswana youth to use this high-tech gear.
It’s not charity. It’s a smarter business model.
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Turbulence at the Top
Look, no multi-billion dollar startup story is perfect. If you’ve been following the news, you know 2023 was a bit of a soap opera for HB Antwerp. There was a high-profile "divorce" between the founders.
Oded Mansori was ousted, then he sued, then he was reinstated. During that chaos, their 10-year deal with Lucara was actually terminated for a minute. People thought the whole thing might collapse.
But it didn't. By early 2024, the Lucara deal was back on. Boaz Lev and his team managed to steady the ship. While some partners like Shai de Toledo and Rafael Papismedov eventually stepped back from management to pursue "new opportunities" in 2025, Lev has remained a steady hand in the company’s evolution.
What Most People Get Wrong About HB Antwerp
A lot of folks think HB is just another luxury brand like Tiffany or Cartier. Not really. They are a technology and infrastructure company.
The brand they launched, Signum, sells rough diamonds directly to the public and even experimented with NFTs. But the "product" isn't the rock; it's the verifiability. In a world where lab-grown diamonds are crashing the price of natural ones, Lev’s bet is that people will still pay a premium for a natural stone if they can prove it did some good in the world.
Actionable Insights for the Industry
If you’re a business owner or an investor looking at the HB Antwerp model, there are a few real-world takeaways you can actually use:
- Vertical Integration is a Defense Mechanism: By controlling the supply from the mine to the consumer, HB insulated itself from the volatility of the middle-market diamond trade.
- Traceability is the New Luxury: High-net-worth individuals don't just want "shiny." They want "ethical." If you can't prove your supply chain is clean, you're losing the next generation of buyers.
- Local Partnerships over Extraction: The "HB Model" works because the host country (Botswana) is a stakeholder. If you're working in emerging markets, stop thinking like an exporter and start thinking like a local builder.
- Automation Doesn't Kill Craft: The Fenix robot didn't replace the diamond polisher; it freed up human artisans to focus on the complex, creative work that machines still can't touch.
The diamond industry is never going back to the way it was in 2019. Whether it's through blockchain ledgers or robotic polishing, the path Boaz Lev helped pave is now the standard. The days of "trust me" are over. Now, it's "show me the data."
To stay ahead of the curve in ethical sourcing or mineral infrastructure, your next step should be auditing your own supply chain for "blind spots." If a diamond can have 3,000 data points, your product should at least have ten.