[Funding alert] Bengaluru-based home interior startup HomeLane raises $50M in Series E round

Bengaluru-based technology-based home interiors service provider HomeLane raised $50 million (Rs 371 crores) in its Series E funding round led by IIFL AMC’s Late Stage Tech Fund, OIJIF II (Oman India Joint Investment Fund), and Stride Ventures. Its existing investors including Pidilite, Evolvence, NuVentures, Sequoia, and Accel also participated in the round.

According to the official statement, with this round, HomeLane has now raised a total of $104 million (Rs 765 crore) in funds over the last seven years. The RainMaker Group acted as the sole adviser for this funding transaction.

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Speaking with YourStory, Srikanth Iyer, Co-founder and CEO at HomeLane, revealed that the company is looking to utilise the fund in three areas — brand building, enhancing the tech platform, and building new tech products. 

“Now that we are present in 18 cities and plan to move to about 25 cities. We need to increase the trust in the HomeLane brand so we are going to use a part of the funds for brand building. We are a tech interior design platform so we intend to spend the money on the tech itself. We have some great products; for example, a virtual design platform called SpaceCraft. We are also going to spend a part of the funds on tech in new areas such as augmented reality which will make the process more convenient for the customer. The third area is primarily growth. We have been operationally cash flow positive since November 2020,” Srikanth said.

Founded in 2015, HomeLane provides end-to-end tech-enabled home interior services in a personalised and professional way. The startup claims to have created a community of over 20,000 clients across the country.

“Our goal is to become the go-to player for home interiors in the country. We want to serve at least eight to 10 percent of the market in the next four to five years. We are also aimed at taking the company public in the next few years,” Tanuj Choudhary, Co-founder and COO, HomeLane explained.

Speaking about operations amid the pandemic, Tanuj explained that due to the COVID-19 outbreak, users who had already purchased homes needed their interiors to be done. However, due to lockdowns and restrictions, they were more comfortable in connecting with the designers online. 

He also said that over the past year, consumers have been thinking about their homes a lot more. Due to this, HomeLane recorded about a 10 percent increase in its order value amid the pandemic. “Users are buying more products, maybe not expensive products but more products such as work from home furniture to make their homes comfortable,” he added.

The co-founders explained that the startup is currently recording a Rs 850 crore annual run rate and is aimed at reaching Rs 1,500 crore annual run rate by March 2022.

Speaking about the investment, Chetan Naik, Fund Manager, Private Equity at IIFL AMC said that HomeLane is well-positioned to be a “beneficiary of growing momentum in home improvement space.”

“As homes continue to be the centre of everything, there has been an increased momentum in the home interiors category. Backing HomeLane is our vote of confidence in their technological innovation leading to rapid scale, customer-centric approach to solving problems, and most importantly, the strong team led by Srikanth and Tanuj. This is evident in the kind of traction that they have gained even in the midst of a pandemic,” Srinath Srinivasan, CEO at Oman India Joint Investment Fund said in a statement.

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