Urban Ladder, the Ratan Tata-backed online furniture store, is set to raise about $60 million (Rs 360-370 crore) by next week, according to sources.
The fresh inflow, in the final stages of consideration, is learnt to be led by existing investors Steadview Capital, SAIF Partners and Kalaari Capital. Sequoia Capital is believed to have also joined the consortium for the new round. So could another new investor.
Urban Ladder, a little over two years old, competes with the likes of Pepperfry and Rocket Internet-backed FabFurnish in the online space. It is to use the new funds to strengthen operations and logistics infrastructure.
FabFurnish is also, say reports, looking to mop fresh funds to expand market presence.
Urban Ladder is in the process of branching out to complete housing solutions, from being only an online furniture company. A part of the new funds would be utilised to ramp up its work force across areas such as technology, logistics and delivery. Compared to the current employee base of about 600, it is aiming to hire another 2,000 during the year, to feed the rapid expansion planned, considered a 'game changer' for the Bengaluru-based company.
"We have no comments to share at the moment," went an email response from the company spokesperson on the funding plan.
The furniture market in India is estimated to be about $10 billion (Rs 60,000 crore), with the online market less than Rs 1,000 crore. With growth of e-commerce, furniture as a vertical is seen as the next growth frontier, the horizontal space being thickly occupied by giants such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon. The latter three have been unable to make a strong mark in niche categories such as furniture.
While deep discounting has been the mantra for majority of horizontal e-commerce companies, not much of a price war has been seen among online furniture retailers. Furniture as a segment offers one of the highest margins, much like fashion, say experts. Urban Ladder has so far raised about $26 million from its investors. Ratan Tata made a 'minority' investment in the company last year.
