India based Homevista Decor and Furnishing Pvt Ltd, which runs online interior design and furniture company HomeLane, has raised US$30 million in a fresh round of funding to fuel its expansion into home renovation as a service and to expand into 10 new cities, the company said in a statement on Monday.
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Homelane’s series D round was led by new investors, including a Dubai-based investor’s private equity firm Evolvence India Fund (EIF), Pidilite Group and New-York based investment firm FJ Labs, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and JSW Ventures. With the current round, the total funding raised by HomeLane stands at $46 million.
The startup was founded in 2014 by Rama Harinath, Srikanth Iyer, and Vivek Parasuram, the startup provides end-to-end interior design solutions to customers. Users log onto HomeLane, engage with designers on the platform to customize designs and furniture sets best-suited to their needs.
HomeLane’s CEO,Srikanth Iyer told
Thailand Startup News, “With this investment, we will accelerate our expansion into newer markets. We will also build a world-class offering for the $12 billion home renovation market. Our focus on technology to improve both experience and efficiency for our consumers and design partners will continue, with significant investments in people and product."
The home décor
startup also provides design modules for kitchen spaces, bedrooms, and other furniture sets such as wardrobes, storage units, and study tables to homeowners. HomeLane is currently present in 7 cities, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, NCR, Kolkata and Pune and claims to have completed over 6,000 projects to date.
Srikanth Iyer said the fresh investment comes at a time when the company is “closer to achieving EBITDA profitability". HomeLane had reported US$5.7 million in revenues in the financial year ended March 2018 (FY1) along with a net loss of about US$4.05 million losses in the same year. The startup had incurred total expenses of ₹70.2 crore in FY18. HomeLane is yet to file full-year FY19 results.
Chief business officer, Tanuj Choudhry, HomeLane, said in a statement that HomeLane would exit FY20 "at an ARR of INR 700Cr and that the start-up is on track to getting to company-wide profitability in early FY21."
The startup also has an offline presence through its 16 experience centers which offer customers a choice to browse through its catalog using virtual 3D designs. It also has an affiliate program for sourcing designers onto the platform.
The company pays a 6-8% commission to affiliate designers for every design project that they take up for customers. HomeLane manufactures and installs the furniture at the customer’s site while the designer also oversees customer relationships as well.
The startup competes with other interior design startups such as Livspace, and platforms including Pepperfry, and Urban Ladder that sells furniture online. Mint reported last week that Livsapce is currently in talks to raise $100 million, at a valuation of $500 million.
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