French MNC Saint-Gobain Acquires Minority Stake In Livspace

French multinational Saint-Gobain has acquired a minority stake in Indian interior design startup Livspace to complement the group’s range of construction solutions for the residential market in India.

Founded in 2014 by Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma, Livspace is a curated marketplace that provides an end-to-end home design experience for homeowners. The startup’s online marketplace also offers software tools that can help designers and homeowners design interiors. It boasts of a presence across nine metro cities and claims to have helped design over 20,000 homes. 

“This partnership is a win-win for both companies, aiding a faster scale-up and expanded customer reach. Livspace offers a complementary route to market, promoting solutions under the Saint-Gobain brand. We will derive significant synergies and learnings in terms of customer behavior, technology platform, services and supply chain,” said B. Santhanam, Asia-Pacific CEO of Saint-Gobain. 

Saint-Gobain began as a mirror manufacturer in Paris almost four decades ago in 1665. Today, it is a €31.6 Bn company. It has many sub-brands dealing in all kinds of building materials and supplies from gypsum, plastic and pipes to innovative materials like electrochromic, low-emissivity sun-shielding glass. 

With this acquisition of a minority stake, Saint-Gobain could be trying to market its products through Livspace’s platform.

Update: A company representative has confirmed to Inc42 that Livspace will be offering a whole range of Saint-Gobain’s products and solutions to its customers on its platform

So far, the startup has raised around $190 Mn in various funding rounds from investors like Kharis Capital, Venturi Partners, Ingka Investments, TPG Growth, Goldman Sachs, UC-RNT Fund, Bessemer Ventures, Pidilite and others. 

The startup claims to have a 65% market share in the organised home interiors sector. 

Currently, it is operational in India and Southeast Asian markets. In September this year, the startup had announced plans to expand into 80 markets, including 60 new market entries across India and 20 Asia Pacific cities. Last month, Livspace formed a joint venture (JV) with Alsulaiman Group (ASG) to expand into the Middle East region.

In India, it competes with Bengaluru-based Homelane which counts Oman India Joint Investment Fund II (OIJIF II), Stride Ventures, Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, Evolvence India and JSW Ventures as its investors. 

The Indian Construction Industry is expected to reach $1.4 Tn by 2030. It also received the second-highest amount of foreign direct investment amongst all sectors in the country during 2020-21. Under the National Infrastructure Pipeline, India has a $1.4 Tn infrastructure budget. 

The Indian interior design market generated $22.9 Bn in revenue in 2020 according to P&S Intelligence. An increasing population, rapid urbanisation and rising disposable income are expected to drive growth further. 

Earlier this year, Pepperfry, another online furniture and home products market, changed its product and studio strategy to attract younger, design-focused entrepreneurs to its platform amidst plans of an initial public offering.