These 5 interior designing startups caught investors’ attention recently

Setting up a home is no longer a household affair. Today, millennials who have unconventional living patterns consider their home décor as a reflection of their personality. Most homeowners prefer designing firms who can understand their vision and curate cost-effective designs for kitchens, living rooms, wardrobes, etc. 

Using augmented and virtual reality, cloud computing, and 3D technology, these firms offer customers seamless home interiors and renovation experience.

Catching on the trend, startups like Livspace, HomeLane, Bonito Designs, Infurnia, and Spacejoy are eyeing major growth in the segment by leveraging the funds to increase their user base. From getting to know the customer to designing and executing to delivering the final product, these firms are attracting more investors in the sector, while creating a chunk of opportunities for fresh talent.

Let’s take a look at these 5 Bengaluru-based interior designing startups, which raised funds recently.

Livspace

This January, Livspace, a home design and renovation platform, raised around $60 million from Hong Kong-based Tahoe Investment Group, Singapore-domiciled Mercer Investments, and EDB Investments, along with Kharis Capital, a European investment management firm. 

In October, the company launched operations in Singapore, its first international market, and planned to invest $30 million to grow its business in the island city.

“Over the next 30 months, we aim to build Livspace into a $500 million business operating across APAC, and solve the renovation problem for tens of thousands of homeowners,” said Livspace CEO and Co-founder, Anuj Srivastava.

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Livspace also plans to invest in creating the first omni-channel experience in the industry using AR, VR, and platform-integrated physical design experience centres.

Outside of Singapore, Livspace currently operates in nine metros in India. It has a network of 20 design centres and experience apartments across the country. The company works with 3,500 registered designers and has designed 20,000 homes. In India, Livspace claims to have over 80 percent market share, and claims to be more than doubling revenues every year.

For the fiscal year ended March 2019, Livspace reported revenue of Rs 80 crore on a loss of Rs 146 crore, of which employee benefit expenses stood at Rs 90 crore and marketing at Rs 50 crore, regulatory filings showed.

The company last raised $70 million in 2018, led by private equity firm TPG Growth and Goldman Sachs. It also received an undisclosed amount from IKEA group franchisee, Ingka Group (Ingka Holding BV and its controlled entities) for a minority stake in May 2019.

Founded in July 2014 by IIT Kanpur alumni Anuj Srivastava, who worked with Google, and Ramakant Sharma, former Myntra executive, Livspace has raised about $150 million till date.

HomeLane 

HomeLane helps people with home renovations and interior designs. The Bengaluru-based startup raised $30 million in December led by new investors Evolvence India Fund (EIF), Pidilite Group, and FJ Labs, and saw participation from Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and JSW Ventures. At present, the total funding raised by HomeLane stands at $46 million.

Commenting on the funding, Srikanth Iyer, Founder and CEO, HomeLane, had said, “With this investment, we will accelerate our expansion into newer markets, while further penetrating our presence in the current ones. We will also build a world-class offering for the $12 billion home renovation market.”

Apurva Parekh, Director, Pidilite, added, “We have been impressed with the performance of HomeLane in recent years. Backed by its strong tech-stack, HomeLane is emerging as a strong player in the home interiors industry.”

With around 16 experience centres and over 500 designers across seven cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR, HomeLane plans to become profitable by 2021. 

Tanuj Choudhry, Chief Business Officer, HomeLane, pointed out that India’s home interiors market of $18 billion has massive untapped potential. “We will exit FY20 at an ARR of Rs 700 crore and are on track to getting to company-wide profitability in early-FY21,” he added.

Founded in 2014 by Srikanth, Rama Harinath (CMO), Prabhu Venkatesh (COO), Vivek Parashuram (CDO), and Srini Battula (CTO), HomeLane claims to have already delivered over 6,000 projects since inception with support of 900+ design experts.

Bonito Designs

Bonito Designs, a bespoke interior space creator, raised $6.3 million in March 2019 from Tomorrow Capital to extend its operations.

Sameer AM, Co-founder and CEO of Bonito Designs, had said,

“We want to make our designs accessible to a larger audience who currently have minimal options from the services offered by the unorganised players. Our vision is simple - providing designer home solutions to customers as per their preferences and requirements and more.”

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According to Rohini Prakash, CEO of Tomorrow Capital, “Bonito Designs is a brand that uses a process-driven delivery model to provide unique design solutions. We are confident that their focus on design and customer-centric approach will help them become the undisputed leader in the interior designing landscape of India.”

Along with its plan to partner with comparable brands in other cities, Bonito Designs aims to complete 500 designer homes in the current fiscal. Founded in 2012 by Sameer AM and Vathsala CR, the startup has worked on over 1,500 projects, and aims to aggressively bolster its operations in other cities as well including Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad.

Infurnia 

Infurnia, which offers a cloud-based platform for professionals to design buildings, interiors, modular kitchens, and floor plans, secured $200,000 in a round of funding from a group of angel investors in October 2019. The round valued the startup at $5 million and brought the total capital raised by the firm to $760,000.

Founded in 2014 by Nikhil Kumar and Lovepreet Mann, Infurnia claims to be the world’s first architecture and interior design software based completely on the web and made for professional architects and designers. The platform allows designers to register and start using the software from anywhere.

The startup charges $500 per user per year for enterprises and $200 per user per year for freelance designers.

Infurnia has over 400 organic sign-ups on a month-on-month basis, of which over 30 percent are from overseas. It is on the path for being cash flow positive in 2020.

Spacejoy

Spacejoy, an e-design startup offering interior design as a service, had raised $1 million in seed funding from Accel Partners in September last year. 

Founded in April 2019 by former Myntra and Flipkart employees Arnab Saharoy and Vinay Indresh, Spacejoy is a one-stop digital design service powered by interactive 3D technology that allows users to design (either by themselves or with the help of expert designers), visualise, and purchase. The company currently caters to the US market for its large size and high cost associated with engaging service providers.

Co-founder and CEO Saharoy said that Spacejoy charges a nominal fee compared to engaging a designer in the US and provides instant feedback on designs which bridges the gap.

“Spacejoy’s technology not only enables the consumer to visualise their home in real time but can also source featured furniture and decor elements through partners,” added Subrata Mitra, Partner at Accel.

(Edited by Megha Reddy)