India's furniture retailer Pepperfry raises $100m
Online furniture retailer Pepperfry has raised $100 million in Series D funding from a group of investors including Goldman Sachs and Zodius Technology Fund.
Existing backers Bertelsmann India Investments and Norwest Venture Partners also participated in the round, according to Livemint. The company will use the new funding to open more distribution centers, improve its technology platform, and to strengthen its logistics network by adding more vehicles.
Currently Pepperfry has about 2.5 million unique monthly visitors to its marketplace, which hosts more than 1,000 merchants. In addition to the online marketplace, the company offers so-called experience centers, where customers can try out products before placing an order. It plans to add 15 more of these centers to the six that it has now.
Pepperfry has raised $28 million in its three previous funding rounds, including an $8 million Series B round from Norwest in 2013. Norwest is the only firm to have taken part in all of Pepperfry's institutional funding rounds to date, according to AVCJ Research.
In India's highly fragmented furniture industry, online retailers like Pepperfry can offer customers the benefits of scale and efficiency. Major competitors include Urban Ladder, which claims to be the country's leading online furniture retailer. It recently raised a $50 million Series C round from Sequoia Capital and TR Capital.
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