Furlenco : Rent Awesome Furniture & Transform Your Home

Furlenco is Indian furniture renting company founded in Bangalore 2012 by Ajith Mohan Karimpana. The startup offers an array of award-winning furniture on rent on a monthly subscription basis.

Their most popular product is “Bounce” which accounts for 10-15% of sales on a daily basis. The company has recently expanded to Mumbai and Pune.

Furlenco has tied up with TVF for Permanent Roommates, NoBroker among others.

Idea Generation

Ajith comes from a professional background as he was the VP at Goldman Sachs and spent close to 9 years in the US. After doing some major calculation, he figured that shipping is going to be pretty expensive. After moving to India, something struck him as to why there is no rental furniture here. He was the perfect candidate for rental furniture but he was not 100% sure whether he was going to stay back for good in India or go back to the US. So rental furniture would have worked perfectly for him. So after spending some time in research on the rental furniture, he was unable to find the rental furniture and clearly saw a big opportunity that drove him to introduce Furlenco to the rental furniture industry.

Challenges Faced

Furniture rental is being introduced first time to India in an organized way.

The challenges are many – the biggest among them is reverse logistics. Unlike a normal retail delivery model, the company has 100% of the items returned back, at some point of time. This basically means that the logistics challenges doubles.

Indian laws are not exactly clear about furniture rentals (again this being the first time). The company could be the benchmark for many of the changes that could happen. Running operations on measly 3-4% revenue (compared to a furniture retailer) is one of the biggest challenges. Furlenco is proud to say that we not only have cracked it but also doing it profitably.

Revenue Model and Funding

Furlenco earns its revenue by renting out furniture items. The company owns and hold the inventory. Customers typically pay just about 3-4% of the retail price of furniture item per month. The company invest only in solid wood furniture and the life of a seasoned well-designed solid wood item is anywhere between 15 to 50 years. This kind of model is completely and radically different from any ecommerce or normal retail models that India is familiar with.

Furlenco has raised $6 million funding in Series A round in March 22, 2015.

USP

Furlenco follows an inventory-led model. They curate the furniture based on inputs from customers. The company offers exciting after- sales services. Along with free doorstep delivery within 24-72 hours, Furlenco bears all charges with respect to maintenance, dry-cleaning and all logistical issues. Furlenco believes in “Have Everything, Buy Nothing”. They want their customers to enjoy luxurious furniture and making Furlenco a way of life!

Market Size and Traction Details 

Indian furniture market is pegged at Rs. 65000-70000 crore out of which, 10-15% is organised sector. The company is the first organized player in India in the furniture rental industry. From 180 houses in 2015, they are now nearing 6000 houses in 2016. The company has also expanded to Mumbai and Pune recently. Anybody who is a home buff between the age of 22-40 becomes a customer. However, almost 99% of customers are individuals although a small segment of corporates do get furniture packages from Furlenco as an add-on benefit in their remuneration packages. By the end of 2016, the aims to do 15000+ homes across 3 cities.