Furniture Rental Marketplace Furlenco Raises $5.84 Mn In Series C Round

Bengaluru-headquartered furniture rental startup Furlenco has raised $5.84 Mn (INR 40.46 Cr) in a Series C funding round from Lightbox Ventures, Crescent Enterprises and others.

According to a Ministry of Corporate Affairs filing accessed by Inc42, the company has issued Series C4 compulsorily convertible preference shares to:

• Lightbox Ventures at a premium of INR 191.82 per share for 340,649 shares worth INR 6.87 Cr
• Chowdry Enterprises Ltd at a premium of INR 191.82 per share for 340,005 shares worth INR 6.86 Cr
• Romnesh Lamba at a premium of INR 191.82 per share for 708,155 shares worth INR 1.42 Cr
• Lakshmi Narayanan at a premium of INR 191.82 per share for 177,038 shares worth INR 3.57 Cr
• Monika Garware Modi and Innovative quest LLP at a premium of INR 191.82 per share for 99,098 shares worth INR 1.99 Cr each
• AMK Family Trust at a premium of INR 191.82 per share for 70,815 shares worth INR 1.42 Cr

The funding was first alerted by data intelligence platform paper.vc.

Founded by Ajith Mohan Karimpana in 2011, Furlenco is an online platform offering furniture for homes on a subscription basis in Bengaluru, Delhi/NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, and Pune.

Prior to this round, the company has raised a total funding of $30.1 Mn (INR 195 Cr), Furlenco is backed by Lightbox Ventures, Axis Capital, Kris Gopalakrishnan’s Pratithi Trust, and Trifecta Capital, among others.

The company posted an operational income of INR 21.16 Cr in FY17, a 204% increase from FY16. Its total income in FY17 was INR 24.34 Cr. For production, Furlenco has tied up with a bunch of solid wood manufacturers. The startup shares the designs with them, and they contract manufacture for it. As of now, it has tied up with more than 40 vendors.

With millennials coming of age and becoming a spending force to reckon with in India, the sharing economy has become more and more common. And an increasing number of startups are cashing on this opportunity.

A report by BCG estimated that $23 bn in venture capital funding has poured into the sharing economy globally since 2010. The furniture rental market is expected to grow at a robust rate over the forecast period — 2017-2024. In India, the market for furniture rental is seen to be around $800-850 Mn.

Of India’s total $18 Bn (INR 1,294,06 Cr) furniture market, 85-90% is unorganised and offline. Here, online furniture retailers like Urban Ladder, Furlenco, and Pepperfry cater to just 2% of the market. Much like its rival Rentomojo, Furlenco has raised funds after a long dry phase, and may use these funds to significantly scale up and ensure it wins the war for survival in the furniture segment.

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