Online interior design startup Design Cafe has raised Rs 200 crore from WestBridge Capital in an equity financing round. The funding round also saw participation from existing investor Fireside Ventures.
The Kanwaljit Singh founded early stage investor had led an undisclosed round in the Bengaluru-based startup in July last year. For the uninitiated, WestBridge Capital is also an investor in Fireside Ventures.
Currently operational in Bengaluru, Design Cafe will use the latest proceeds to expand to six cities, including Mumbai, the Delhi National Capital region and Hyderabad by 2019.
Founded in 2015 by architects and designers Gita Ramanan and Shezaan Bhojani, Design Cafe offers an online customised design and decor solution to consumers.
To ensure customer satisfaction, the firm has deployed a personal design team who provides designer homes in 3D or in Virtual Reality. It offers services like personalised designs, budget management, modular kitchens, decor solution, home cleaning among others.
Design Cafe directly competes with BCCL-backed HomeLane and TPG Growth funded Livspace while some products and services of Pepperfry and UrbanLadder also compete with it.
Besides, Studiokon Ventures also provides end-to-end real estate transformation solutions to corporates, retail, and hospitality spaces.
The lead investor WestBridge Capital which manages assets of about $2 billion was founded in 2000. The PE fund had merged with Sequoia Capital in 2006. In 2011, WestBridge was spun out by four managing directors of the then Sequoia Capital India — Sumir Chadha, Sandeep Singhal, KP Balaraj and SK Jain.
Earlier this year media reports also suggested that Balaraj and Jain were planning to move out from the PE firm
In 2018, WestBridge invested in very few startups. One of the notable investments is $15 million Series A round in workspace solutions provider IndiQube.
The development was reported by ET.