Urban Ladder raises $50 million, focuses on expanding reach

New Delhi: Online furniture and home decor company Urban Ladder raised $50 million in fresh funds in a round led by Sequoia Capital and TR Capital, the company said on Thursday. Existing investors Steadview Capital, SAIF Partners and Kalaari Capital too participated in the round.

The company will use the money towards geographical expansion and will invest heavily behind building technology, it said in a statement.

Urban Ladder has till now attracted $27 million from Kalaari Capital, SAIF Partners and Steadview Capital in the last three years. Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus, Tata Group, made a personal investment in the company in November 2014.

“Over the last three years, we have stayed sharply focused on our design thinking, product quality and customer experience. While these will continue to be important themes, geographical expansion will also be a key focus area this year. We will be present in 30 cities by the end of 2015” said Ashish Goel, chief executive and co-founder, Urban Ladder.

Founded by Rajiv Srivatsa and Goel in July 2012, Urban Ladder provides furniture solutions in 12 cities in India, including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi/NCR, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Surat, Kolkata and Mangalore.

The company offers more than 4,000 products across more than 35 categories in furniture and home decor.

“We are delighted to partner with Urban Ladder in their vision of making quality home products available online to millions of Indian consumers, and look forward to working with Ashish, Rajiv and the rest of the Urban Ladder team to help build an enduring business.” said Gautam Mago, managing director, Sequoia Capital India Advisors.

“We are investing heavily in technology to introduce world- class tech innovations that will massively simplify furniture shopping” said Srivatsa, chief operating officer & co-founder, Urban Ladder.

Online retail is expected to be worth $6 billion this year, a 70% increase over 2014 sales of $3.5 billion, according to technology researcher Gartner Inc. E-commerce represents less than 4% of the total retail market, according to a Gartner report published in October.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.