Exclusive: Design Cafe Is Raising INR 24.99 Cr From WestBridge, Fireside

Bengaluru-based online interior design platform Design Cafe is raising fresh funding round from its existing investors.

According to the ministry of corporate affairs filings accessed by Inc42, the company in a board meeting on May 27, authorised allotment of 3760 Series B preference shares to WestBridge Capital and Fireside Ventures.

The company is offering shares at a face value of INR 500 with a premium of INR 65,975.61 per share worth INR 24.99 Cr. Of this, WestBridge is investing INR 22.49 Cr with the rest INR 2.49 Cr coming in from Fireside.

In the filings, the company said it requires additional funds for the growth and expansion of its business. Post-investment, WestBridge will hold 50.82% stake in the company with 20.42% stake held by Fireside.

Prior to this, the company has raised $35 Mn from its existing clutch of investors.

Design Cafe was founded in 2011, by architects and designers Gita Ramanan and Shezaan Bhojani as a traditional design company. Later, in 2015, the founders pivoted to the online model and launched the digital platform.

The company claims to have delivered around 5000 homes in Bengaluru and launched its home interiors experience centre in Mumbai in August 2019 and expanded to Hyderabad in March, with plans for Delhi-NCR expansion.

The company has vertically integrated with their own designers, workforce and a 35,000 Sqft factory in Bengaluru to manufacture all its products.

Design Cafe had earlier claimed to have a revenue of nearly INR 120 Cr, with 2.5x Y-o-Y growth in signups and 3x Y-o-Y growth in revenue.

With increasing urbanisation in India, the growth of interior design or home decor market seems to be a natural progression. The construction industry is estimated to grow at an average of 6.4% between 2018 and 2023, according to GlobalData, which is set to spur demand for home decor. The spike is also creating space for a number of business models including furniture rentals such as RentoMojo, Furlenco; end-to-end interior design and delivery like HomeLane and Livspace and furniture retail such as Pepperfry, UrbanLadder among others. The market for home interiors and renovation in India today is estimated to be between $20 Bn- $30 Bn.