Livspace set to become one of India's most admired Internet companies

By Swadha Mishra

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Entrepreneur India

The online home design and décor industry is witnessing rapid growth with quite a handful of start-ups entering this space offering innovative solutions. With over $12 billion in size across end-to-end home design and broader replacement furniture category, the industry is poised to grow at over 25 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in future to create a significantly large category, which is mostly fragmented today.

One such clear leader emerging in this space is Bengaluru-based start-up Livspace, which is country's first online end-to-end home design and decor experience store, and a curated marketplace for homeowners and designers. Recently, the firm announced to raise $8 million in an internal round of funding led by existing investors Helion Venture Partners, Bessemer Ventures Partners and Jungle Ventures.

This round of funding comes within months of the launch and the Series A round of $4.6 million. The same would be deployed to accelerate Livspace's expansion across metros; hire senior level talent; build strong momentum across product, design innovation, user engagement on mobile and web; and revenue growth. "We are also looking to utilise this round of funding to create innovative mobile products, designer oriented products, and further build our home design platform. We would be adding more product categories like kitchen, wardrobe, and many others," says Anuj Srivastava, Co-founder & CEO, Livspace. The round also saw investments from prominent angels, including Gokul Rajaram, who had recently joined board as a Special Advisor.

Speaking on the investment, Rahul Chowdhri, Partner, Helion Venture Partners, says, "We recognised the visionary potential and execution talent of the Livspace founding team very early on. In a short period of time, Livspace has created a new category in a very large market and are setting the pace in terms of innovative product launches, outstanding growth, and design innovation. We're thrilled to be partnering with them, as we create one of India's truly admired Internet companies."

A Unicorn in Making

The Internet offers a unique opportunity to create large brands and billion dollar potential companies in the coming future. The home design and décor market in India is estimated to reach $30 billion in size in coming few years, and Livspace is targeting a large chunk of this market to emerge as a dominant player in the space.

Launched in December 2014 by Srivastava, Shagufta Anurag, and Ramakant Sharma; the online home design service start-up has already acquired two companies – DezignUp and Dwll.in to strengthen its position as the market innovator in creating content and community driven eCommerce for the home design and décor space. "It has been a high octane past few months since the launch of Livspace in December 2014. We're seeing strong growth and business fundamentals across the board and have created an enviable content, and community driven commerce business in the home design space for the first time in India," shares Srivastava.

Within a quarter of launching the business, Livspace has hit a multimillion-dollar run rate. This is unprecedented in the history of Internet businesses in India. There has been over 1000 per cent growth in web traffic in the past few months. Livspace already has hundreds of interior design looks and over 25,000 SKUs, which are being personalised by homeowners on an everyday basis.

The company has also seen employee numbers growing at over 500 per cent since launch, with rapid hiring in areas like technology, data science, design, and go-to-market. "Livspace has the industry's best design, product, and engineering team. We will continue to invest heavily across these teams and expand our team on the engineering side, designers, and product managers, etc.," Srivastava adds further.

Future Scenario

Investors believe that Livspace's outstanding growth across all business metrics – user traffic, engagement, product launches, and business traction in a very short period of time – is a testament to the vision of its founding team members, their growth plans, and their ability to drive execution.

Further, speaking on the growth plans and expansion strategy, Srivastava explains, "Expansion through acquisition is one way of scaling fast. We had a brilliant launch in Bangalore and are going to use the money to expand our presence across metro cities, where the market demand for our solution is very high. Over 50 per cent of our traffic is now coming from the phone and we get highly engagement audience from several large metros. In the future, we'll get to see 2-3 large players emerging in the content driven end-to-end home design space, with 1-2 furniture brands and 1-2 marketplace models."

Swadha Mishra

Former Staff, Entrepreneur.com

Related Topics

News and Trends

Legistify Raises $4 Million In Series A Funding

The company will use the fund for product enrichment and innovation, international business expansion and strengthening customer base in the country

Starting a Business

Its First Year, This Startup Struggled to Get 75 Clients. Five Years Later, They Have 18,000. Here's How They Did It.

Financial planning startup Facet knew they were targeting a huge untapped market. But getting clients wasn't as easy as they hoped.

Business News

Taylor Swift Reportedly Pays All Restaurant-Goers' Checks to Clear Out Restaurant For Her and NFL Star Travis Kelce

The star was spotted at Arrowhead Stadium for the Kansas City Chiefs game Sunday night alongside Kelce's mother.

Growth Strategies

How Viable Are Family Offices for Start-ups?

Since 2014, family offices have backed more than 380 startups. The rapid expansion of UHNW individuals in India has led to a growing appetite for more efficient, effective and prosperous ways to invest money and manage assets, and they are doing it through investing in startups directly.

Business News

Here's the Secret to Growing Your Small Business, According to Execs at UPS, Airbnb, Mastercard, and Other Big Brands

These 10 executives work at big companies, overseeing programs that help small business. Here's the advice they wish all small business owners were getting.

Starting a Business

Give Your Company a Cash Infusion With One of These 13 Grant Programs Being Offered by Big Businesses

Big companies on our Champions of Small Business are giving away funds and resources to entrepreneurs like you. See which program is a good fit for your needs.