Design Cafe, a Bengaluru-based online interior design platform has raised ₹200 crores ($28.5 million) in equity round from private equity firm WestBridge Capital and existing investor Fireside Ventures. Earlier the startup raised an undisclosed amount from Fireside Ventures a year ago along with participation from Apurva Salarpuria and Siddharth Pansari. Sprout Capital helped Design Cafe as the financial advisor during the funding process.
Founded by architect Gita Ramanan and designer Shezaan Bhojani in 2011, the startup begins as a traditional design firm. In 2015, the business pivoted to the online model and launched the digital platform. With the recent fundraiser, the startup aims to expand its footprints across the country by expanding to six major cities including Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Hyderabad by the end of 2019.
Home design and decor market in India has grown to $45 billion in 2017 from $13 billion in 2010. Reports speculate the industry to grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent till 2018. Design Cafe primarily competes with Livspace which has raised $70 million in series C funding from TPG Growth and Goldman Sachs recently. Some more players in the space are Homelane, Pepperfry and Urban Ladder.
“We have been impressed with DesignCafe’s rapid scaling up and initial success. Their high customer satisfaction rate is an excellent achievement and is a testimony to the company’s deep domain expertise in this sector, hard work and good business judgment,” Sandeep Singhal, managing partner, WestBridge Capital, said.
WestBridge Capital has invested in startups like IndiQube, a workplace solutions provider, coworking space Awfis and healthcare data analytics startup Innovaccer in the past. The private equity firm manages around $2 billion and invests in public companies primarily. The firm has also been a part of Fireside Venture’s $48.4 million anchor fund raised in March this year.
