Bertelsmann, NVP back India furniture marketplace

The size of the investment was not disclosed, but local media put it at around $15 million. According to AVCJ Research, NVP has made two previous investments in the company, providing $5 million in seed funding in 2011 ahead of its launch, and a further $8 million two years later.

Founded by Amareen Murthy, previously country manager at eBay, Pepperfry's site launched in early 2012. The company claims to be India's furniture, home and living retail portal, with more than 45,000 furniture, home décor, furnishings and kitchen products. It operates as a managed marketplace, working with 1,000 merchant partners and not carrying the inventory risk.

The investment arguably reflects VCs' appetite for vertical plays in relatively untapped niche segments as opposed to the horizontal platforms best exemplified by the likes of Flipkart and Snapdeal.

"Pepperfry has very quickly developed into one of India's leading online marketplaces, especially in the furniture segment," said Pankaj Makkar, managing director of Bertelsmann India Investments, in a statement. "In cooperation with Bertelsmann's global network, we are excited to partner with its founders in further developing the company."

Pepperfry represents Bertelsmann's third direct investment in India, following commitments to Indiaproperty.com, one of the country's leading real estate portals, and Authorgen Technologies, which runs online education platform Wiziq.com.

NVP recently reached a final close of $1.2 billion on its latest fund, which will make early to late stage venture and growth investments out of the US and via subsidiaries in India and Israel. The VC firm is an active player in India, with 28 portfolio companies.

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• Topics
• Venture
• Consumer
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• South Asia
• Early-stage
• India
• Norwest Venture Partners
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• TMT