Proptech Unicorn NoBroker Enters Home Interiors Market With An INR 100 Cr Budget

Bengaluru-based proptech unicorn NoBroker has forayed into the home interiors market after recently opening its first-ever experience centre in the city. The startup plans to invest INR 100 Cr in this new project, which would include expenditure on both marketing and hiring.

NoBroker has also onboarded more than 50 design partners till now to meet the increasing demand for its brand-new service, which was till now in a pilot mode, and claimed that it has already served over a hundred customers in the city.

The startup said, till March this year, there were no physical experience centres where customers could get a touch and feel of the material and finish of their preferred designs before installing them in their homes. With the experience centres, which NoBroker is now planning to set up in other cities including Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and NCR, NoBroker believes it would be able to capture more customers and expand its business in this segment.

Talking about some of the major issues in the home interiors market, where businesses fail to deliver quality products on time, or fail to meet up to the customers’ expectations, Amit Agarwal, CEO and cofounder at NoBroker said that the startup is exactly focused on addressing these through its services. 

“If we look at various research data, the amount of work that is generated in the country in renovations and home interiors, it is a massive market with a huge space for multiple players. But right now, the majority of the market is being served by small entrepreneurs many of who are good, while many do not offer the quality of service and the standard the customers would have wanted,” Agarwal said in a conversation with Inc42.

“Our objective is not to get the market that is already with the established organised players, rather we are behind the larger unorganised market that is out there,” Agarwal added.

NoBroker said that it is planning to solve the problem of a fragmented home interiors industry where finding the right designer, contractor, carpenter or a freelancer becomes a tedious task for homeowners looking to renovate or build their space. 

Hence, NoBroker is entering the market to offer a smooth experience to customers across price, timeline, and quality of materials used, said Agarwal.

The INR 100 Cr budget allotment for this project comes from the NoBroker’s recent funds raised. Agarwal also confirmed that this parked amount doesn’t come at the cost of the ongoing other expenses.

NoBroker raised $210 Mn in its Series E round in November last year, taking its valuation to $1.01 Bn and becoming India’s first proptech unicorn.

Agarwal, along with Akhil Gupta and Saurabh Garg founded NoBroker in 2014. Its real estate rental platform claims to provide verified listings from property owners, without brokerage fees. 

It also provides property-related solutions such as — NoBroker Pay, for rent and maintenance payments; NoBroker Home Services, for painting, cleaning and more; and NoBrokerHood, which aims to simplify visitor management within residential accommodations and also offers a seller’s marketplace for verified users.

NoBroker completed an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buyback round worth INR 32.2 Cr earlier this month, Inc42 reported.

The startup is also focusing on hiring more employees right now. Without disclosing the exact number of expected headcount increase, Agarwal talked about a plan to offer over 1,000 jobs in the next one year.

He also said that NoBroker is eying INR 120 Cr of revenue in the next one year, from the new home interior business alone. In the year next, the startup is planning for a tripled revenue of INR 360 Cr.

In FY20, NoBroker reported total revenue of INR 79 Cr, which was over a 200% increase from its revenue reported in FY19. However, in the same period, the startup’s loss from continuing operations also more than doubled to INR 98 Cr, in comparison to the previous fiscal year.

Home Interiors Market In India

According to a last year’s report, the Indian interior design market was worth $23.2 Bn in 2020 and is further projected to reach $38.2 Bn by 2027, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4% during the forecast period of 2021-2027. The report said that the Indian interior design market is also driven by its booming real estate market. 

Some of the major players in this expanding interior design space include Livspace, MS Dhoni-backed HomeLane, Spaceler, Hidecor and Interazzo, among others. 

There were also reports of many interior startups raising funds recently.

Bengaluru-based online interior design startup Design Cafe raised an additional $25 Mn (about INR 166 Cr) in its extended Series B round, led by its existing investors Westbridge Capital and Fireside Ventures, in September last year.

At the same time, Mumbai-based Flipspaces, which provides virtual reality (VR)-based interior design, raised a Pre-Series B round of $2 Mn led by Prashasta Seth, ex-CEO, and a few others.

The Indian real estate sector is expected to reach $1 Tn in market size by 2030, up from $200 Bn in 2021, contributing 13% to the country’s GDP by 2025, according to the India Real Estate Industry report.