Livspace, Indian online home design company and the world’s first design automation platform, today announced that it has raised INR 100 crore from existing investors in its third round of funding. The round was led by Bessemer Ventures Partners with increased participation from Jungle Ventures and Helion. This round of funding comes within weeks of the launch of the world’s first ‘Home Design Automation Platform’. The funds will be used to expand operational footprint across metro cities (NOIDA, Gurgaon, Mumbai in 2016 and Pune, Hyderabad in 2017), set up new Livspace design studios with VR technology integration for the best home design experience, expand the design automation platform across thousands of freelance designers in the country, and strengthen the catalog depth, launch new modular products, and further optimize the backend technology.
Founded by Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma, Livspace is home to India’s biggest community of home design enthusiasts (over 600 thousand) and India’s largest community of home designers. Launched in December 2014, Livspace has raised $27.6M since inception. Livspace pioneered the end-to-end home design experience in India and, within the first year of its launch, Livspace made three acquisitions – DezignUp, Dwll.in, YoFloor and launched an exclusive line of Modular Kitchen and Wardrobe systems with deep eCommerce integration which now generates over 50% of Livspace’s business. Over the next year, Livspace aims to dramatically scale customer experience and make it rich, transparent, and predictable such that anyone can have a beautiful home in less than 12 weeks and modular installations in 8 weeks in India.
Anuj Srivastava, CEO and Co-founder of Livspace said, “We’ve built an enviable company which is truly a pioneer in its space worldwide. Ramakant and I want to create a truly innovative technology company out of India, with large scale revenue, and a commercially profitable footprint. By combining the principles of platform, technology and design, we have built Livspace into a technology-driven, consumer internet company that continues to make explosive growth across all business metrics”.
Speaking on the investment, Vishal Gupta, Managing Director, Bessemer Venture Partners, "We are very impressed with the pioneering approach, traction, and commercial scale achieved by Livspace, in a short period of time. Livspace is already India's largest online home design company and continues to see tremendous demand side scale due to the recently announced home design automation platform. Anuj and Ramakant are seasoned entrepreneurs and we are thrilled to partner with them and grow Livspace into one of India's most admired venture backed company.”
Amit Anand, Founding and Managing Partner, Jungle Ventures, added, “Anuj and Ramakant are top tier entrepreneurs who’ve created a truly pioneering idea out of India. It’s truly extensible across many cities across the world as the problem they’re solving is unique, pertinent, and fragmented the world over. I have only seen them go strength-to-strength and create an enviable team, a customer experience, and scale not seen before in the industry. We wish them well in the journey and are excited to build an exciting worldwide story.”
The home industry is estimated to be anywhere between $25-30B but over 95% of it is unorganized and serviced by turnkey contractors, small studios, freelance designers, and carpenters. Livspace sees a tremendous opportunity in adopting a platform driven approach which borrows from the principles of platforms like Uber, AirBnB, etc. to create design entrepreneurs and reduce fragmentation in the industry. Livspace will also invest in technology, to streamline hundreds of contract manufacturers, modular furniture companies, home design services, decor marketplace, etc. and bring them under one platform. This will create supply side scale, creating huge benefits to customers.
