Furniture retailer Pepperfry raises Rs 250 crore

Furniture and home marketplace Pepperfry on Wednesday said that it has raised Rs 250 crore in a fresh round of funding from US-based State Street Global Advisors, one of the world's largest money managers. Mumbai-based Pepperfry has so far raised Rs 1200 crore (including the latest round) since it started operations six years ago.

Some of Pepperfry’s other key existing investors include Goldman Sachs, Norwest Venture Partners, Zodius Capital and Bertelsmann India Investments. “We have been fortunate to have partners who believe in our business, are aligned with our strategy and value our execution capabilities,” said Ambareesh Murty, founder-CEO, Pepperfry in a statement.

Last week Pepperfry’s closest rival Bengaluru-based furniture retailer Urban Ladder raised $12 million funding from its existing investors: Kalaari Capital, SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital and Steadview Capital. Early last year, Urban Ladder raised $15 million from the same set of investors. Both the furniture brands are focusing on a mixed-channel strategy of online-offline to ramp up its presence across key markets in India. Pepperfry has established an omni-channel footprint of over 25 stores across the country.

According to Pepperfry home furniture and décor is amongst the largest consumption categories in India, which is expected to touch Rs 350,000 crore in market size by 2020.

“We are excited to enter the Indian e-commerce market through our investment in Pepperfry. India’s large furniture and décor market is ripe for disruption,” said Anandh Hari, managing director, private equity, State Street Global Advisors.

Pepperfry claims that its revenue has grown at a CAGR of over 83% in the last five years and with its fresh round of investment, it aims to accelerate its break-even point and expects to become a profitable business over the next 12-18 months. Pepperfry said that it would utilise the fresh fund to expand its stores (experience centres) in the tier II markets, ramp up its technology backend and enhance its private brand franchise.