Sequoia, TR lead $50m Series C for India’s Urban Ladder
Urban Ladder, which claims to be India’s leading furniture-focused online retailer, has received $50 million in a Series C round of funding led by Sequoia Capital and TR Capital.
Existing backers Steadview Capital, SAIF Partners and Kalaari Capital also contributed to the round. The capital will go towards geographical expansion - Urban Ladder wants to grow its footprint to 30 cities this year, up from the current 12 cities - and improvements to technology and user experience.
"Today's investment will be utilized to serve our customers even better products, service and tech towards making your homes beautiful," co-founder Rajiv Srivatsa, said via his Twitter account.
Urban Ladder was launched by Srivatsa and Ashish Goel in 2012. The two classmates from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore - Srivatsa went on to work for Yahoo, while Goel had stints with McKinsey & Company and youth-focused entertainment and education company ACK Media - came up with the idea after struggling to find quality furniture and décor for their own homes.
They spent six months understanding the furniture industry, from the sourcing of raw materials through manufacturing and distribution, before taking the business live in 2012. It now offers 4,000 products across 35 categories of furniture, including tabled, storage units and shelves, seating and accessories.
Urban Ladder received $1 million in seed funding from Kalaari in August 2012 and then a $5 million Series A round from SAIF and Kalaari in 2013. Steadview led the $21 million Series B in July 2014 with participation from Kalaari and SAIF.
India's home furnishing industry is highly fragmented. Online marketplaces are well-positioned to leverage their technology and achieve scale as well as offering affordability. Urban Ladder competes with the likes of Fabfurnish and Pepperfry, as well as horizontal e-commerce players such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon India.
More on Consumer
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.