With Third Round Of Funding, LivSpace Targets $100 M Revenue By 2017 Funding will be deployed to expand across metros.
By Samiksha Jain •
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Online home design company; LivSpace today announced that it has raised INR 100 crore from existing investors in its third round of funding. This new round of investment was led by Bessemer Ventures Partners with increased participation from Jungle Ventures and Helion. This round of funding comes within weeks of the launch of the world's first "Home Design Automation Platform'.
Founded by Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma, Livspace is home to community of home design enthusiasts (over 600 thousand), and community of home designers.
Speaking on the investment, Vishal Gupta, Managing Director, Bessemer Venture Partners, "We are very impressed with the pioneering approach, traction, and commercial scale achieved by Livspace, in a short period of time. Livspace is already India's largest online home design company and continues to see tremendous demand side scale, due to the recently announced home design automation platform."
Funding will be deployed to expand across metros, set-up new one-of-a-kind Livspace design studios and further develop the recently launched "home design automation platform',
Ever since its launch in December 2014, Livspace has raised $27.6 million.
On asking about what attracted the investors to their business, Anuj Srivastava, CEO and Co-founder, Livspace said, "Livspace has pioneered the end-to-end online home design space in India, with great traction, explosive growth across all business metrics and many firsts. We have incorporated principles of platforms, technology, and design principles to create one of India's only pure play technologies driven consumers Internet Company. We're now online home design platform and have already hit operational profitability for Bangalore. Livspace is the first in the world, in introducing the home design automation approach and we're already seeing thousands of designers and partners who have expressed interested in getting certified on our platform, which will help create the most capital-efficient, technology-driven, and asset-light model for the end-to-end home design industry."
Livspace pioneered the end-to-end home design experience in India, and within the first year of its launch, Startup made three acquisitions – DezignUp, Dwll.in, YoFloor and launched an exclusive line of Modular Kitchen and Wardrobe systems with deep eCommerce integration which now generates over 50 per cent of Livspace's business.
"We've built an enviable company, which is truly a pioneer in its space worldwide. Ramakant and I want to create a truly innovative technology company out of India, with large scale revenue, and a commercially profitable footprint. By combining the principles of platform, technology and design, we have built Livspace into a technology-driven, consumer internet company that continues to make explosive growth across all business metrics," said Srivastava.
What Next?
Over the next year, Livspace aims to dramatically scale customer experience and make it rich, transparent, and predictable, such that anyone can have a beautiful home in less than 12 weeks and modular installations in 8 weeks in India.
"Our focus will be to strengthen the catalogue depth, launch new modular products, and further optimize the backend technology. In the near future, Livspace will invest heavily in setting up Livspace design studios with AR/VR technology integration for an interactive home design experience," informed Srivastava.
The company will also invest in technology, to streamline hundreds of contract manufacturers, modular furniture companies, home design services, decor marketplace, etc. and bring them under one platform. This will create supply side scale, creating huge benefits to customers.
Sector Overview
The home industry is estimated to be anywhere between $25-30 billion, but over 95 per cent of it is unorganized and serviced by turnkey contractors, small studios, freelance designers, and carpenters.
Livspace sees a tremendous opportunity in adopting a platform driven approach which borrows from the principles of platforms like Uber, AirBnB, etc. to create design entrepreneurs and reduce fragmentation in the industry.
