BCCL invests Rs 24 Cr in online home interior marketplace HomeLane

Online home interiors marketplace HomeLane has raised Rs 24 crore in a fresh round of funding from Brand Capital--the strategic investment arm of the media company Bennett, Coleman, and Co. Ltd (the Times Group).

This is the second funding round for the Bengaluru-based startup within six months. In December, last year it had raised $10 million from Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, and RB Investments.

Apart from the funding, HomeLane was also in headlines in December for shutting down Capricoast within a month of acquisition for Rs 90 crore.

The fresh capital will be deployed towards expanding operations and branding.
HomeLane currently operates in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi-NCR.

With the fresh capital infusion, it aims to double the number of experience centres in existing markets by 2018.

Founded in 2014 by Srikanth Iyer and Rama Harinath, HomeLane offers a virtual design platform--SpaceCraft and a real-time integrated pricing engine. It enables homebuyers to select kitchen, wardrobe or wall unit combinations with different layouts, designs, colors, and finishes.

The startup is looking to achieve Rs 200 crore in run-rate by March 2019. In 2015-16, it posted a revenue of Rs 34 crore and a loss of Rs 52. crore. The revenue for FY17 and FY18 has not been disclosed.

HomeLane directly competes with the likes of Livspace and very remotely with Pepperfry and UrbanLadder.

While UrbanLadder secured about $12 million from existing investors including Kalaari Capital, Sequoia Capital, Steadview Capital and SAIF Partners, Mumbai-based firm Pepperfry scooped up Rs 250 crore fresh funds from State Street Global Advisors.

Livspace, on the other hand, posted a loss of Rs 47.7 crore in the financial year 2016-17. The company’s revenue also jumped to Rs 22.4 crore from Rs 9.1 crore the previous year.

Meanwhile, e-commerce behemoth Flipkart is also eyeing a major chunk of online furniture pie. The marketplace platform has been planning an aggressive push to accelerate its GMV in the segment. It's targeting to churn out a gross merchandise value, or GMV, of Rs 750 crore by the end of this year in the furniture vertical.

The development was first reported by Businessworld.