Assam Based Home Decor D2C Brand KraftInn Secures Funds

Home decor startup KraftInn has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round from NEDFi Venture Capital Ltd (NVCL), through its North East Venture Fund.

The company plans to utilise the funds in expanding its inventory and designs. The startup said it will also utilise a part of the raised investment in strengthening the marketing, sales and distribution teams. 

Founded by Parikshit Borkotoky and Pramathesh Borkotoky in 2015, KraftInn works towards blending the traditional designs, weaves, patterns, material and processes from North-East India with modern designs, materials, processes etc and manufactures home decor products. 

The eco-friendly brand uses natural materials such as cane and bamboo in manufacturing items such as handlooms, and North-Eastern jewellery, among many other home decor products, it said in a statement. 

“Climate change is one of the most pertinent issues of our generation and home decor companies need to change how we make things. We aspire to be India’s largest direct-to-customer sustainable home decor brand,” said  Parikshit, cofounder, KraftInn.

Speaking on their investment, PVSLN Murty, CMD of NEDFi and Chairman NVCL, commented: “The company fits the NEVF’s (North East Venture Fund) objective of promoting scalable start-ups in the North-East region especially, as the company is working in the traditional craft space but has developed a model which is likely to help scale at a faster rate with the potential to place itself as major player in the eco-friendly home decor space.”

Headquartered in Jorhat, Assam, the company currently offers an array of offerings including lamps, storage utilities, garden accessories, home accessories, office accessories. Its product line spans across 6 categories, with over 50 products. 

The growth story of D2C in India is linked to the rising preference of consumers in the Covid era towards buying products directly from the makers through online channels. Not only this, many traditional brands such as Ajanta-Orpat, Cornitos, LG, Kiehl’s and Havells have also shifted to the D2C model. 

In recent years, some of the most prominent D2C Indian startups have witnessed massive scale in adoption. As per Inc42 Plus estimates, the average year-on-year revenue surge of the 11 most prominent D2C brands across categories was more than 200%. 

The furniture and home decor sector has benefitted extensively due to the growth of the Indian D2C sector. For instance, With 41 deals, a total amount of $409.8 Mn has been raised during 2014-2020 by home decor, online furniture startups.

Late-stage D2C startups raised the highest funding of $964 Mn during 2014-Q3 2020 with 45 deals of 14 unique late-stage startups during the same period. Pepperfry, Melorra, Furlenco and Urban Ladder were among the major funded late-stage startups.