Internal round of funding is a strong endorsement of Livspace’s vision, strong growth, team, and market potential
- Investment by existing investors Helion Venture Partners, Bessemer Ventures Partners and Jungle Ventures
- Funding will be deployed to expand across metros, hire senior level talent and build mobile and designer oriented products
- Livspace aims to be India’s largest end-to-end home design company
Bangalore, August 11, 2015: Livspace, India’s first and only end-to-end home design and décor platform for homeowners and designers, today announced that it has raised $8Mn, in an internal round of funding. This round of funding comes within months of the launch and the Series A round of $4.6 million. The funds will be used to accelerate Livspace’s strong momentum across product and design innovation, user engagement on mobile and web, and revenue growth. All existing institutional investors; Helion Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Jungle Ventures, participated in this round. The round also saw investments from prominent angels, including Gokul Rajaram, who had recently joined as a special advisor. Livspace will utilise the funds to expand across metros in India, enhance design content and technology, hire senior level talent across verticals and build innovative mobile and designer oriented products.
Launched in December 2014, Livspace has already acquired two companies; DezignUp and Dwll.in, and has strengthened its position as the market innovator in creating content and community driven eCommerce for the home design and décor space. The home design and décor market in India is estimated to be $30Bn. The industry is poised to grow at over 25% YoY to create a very large category that is largely fragmented today. Livspace is targeting a large chunk of this market and aims to the dominant player in the space.
Anuj Srivastava, CEO and Co-founder of Livspace said, “It has been a high octane past few months since the launch of Livspace in December 2014. We’re seeing strong growth and business fundamentals across the board and have created an enviable content, and community driven commerce business in the home design space for the first time in India. We’re inspired by the confidence shown in us by Bessemer, Helion, and Jungle and are committed to creating a world class internet company out of India.”
Speaking on the investment, Akash Goel, Vice President, Bessemer Venture Partners said, “We’re thrilled with the outstanding growth that the Livspace team has achieved across all business metrics – user traffic, engagement, product launches, and business traction – in a very short period of time. The Indian end-to-end home design industry is very large but fragmented. It is heartening to see Livspace emerging as the disruptor and innovator in this category. We are impressed with the vision of the founding team and their ability to drive execution and are strongly supportive of their growth plans.”
Rahul Chowdhri, Partner, Helion Venture Partners added, “We recognized the visionary potential and execution talent of the Livspace founding team very early on. In a short period of time, Livspace has created a new category in a very large market and are setting the pace in terms of innovative product launches, outstanding growth, and design innovation. Anuj, Ramakant, and Shagufta are world class start-up entrepreneurs and we’re thrilled to be partnering with them as we create one of India’s truly admired internet companies.”
Amit Anand, Managing Director, Jungle Ventures, said, “Anuj, Shagufta, and Ramakant are disruptive entrepreneurs and have created a truly innovative approach to a complicated problem like home design. Their astounding growth across all both consumer engagement and business metrics is a testament to the strength of the Livspace team. We’re very excited to be part of the journey as we create the regions first end-to-end home design platform for homeowners and designers.”
Livspace is India’s first and only end-to-end home design and décor service provider and curated marketplace for homeowners and designers. With Livspace, customers can discover thousands of interior designs for all types of rooms, personalize the design – by color, material, style – to their liking, and get the exact look for their homes in a matter of weeks. They are a design and technology first team and employ a combination of data science, algorithms, and industrial design to create unique experiences for homeowners and scale the job of interior designers. Well funded, their investors include top venture firms like Helion, Bessemer, and Jungle.
Anuj Srivastava is the CEO and Co-founder of Livspace and has run product leadership role on products like Google Maps, Google Commerce, and Google Ads. Ramakant Sharma is the Director, Head of Technology, and the Co-founder of Livspace. Shagufta Anurag, founder of Space Matrix, is the Chief Design Evangelist and the co-founder of Livspace.
In March 2015 Livspace acquired DezignUp, a dynamic design community and marketplace for consumers and design professionals. In May 2015, they acquired their second company Dwll.in, India’s leading curated online network of interior designers.
Helion is a multi-stage, technology focused venture fund with over $600 million under management. Helion invests in technology and technology-powered businesses such as eCommerce, online services, mobility, enterprise software and outsourcing. Founded in 2006, Helion has over fifty portfolio companies and has backed companies like MakeMyTrip, RedBus, Pubmatic, UnitedLex, TaxiForSure, YepMe, Ezetap and others. Helion has its offices in Bangalore, Gurgaon (NCR) and Silicon Valley.
Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) invests in early-stage, hyper-growth startups, partnering closely with entrepreneurs to build durable businesses. BVP is a global firm with offices in Menlo Park, Cambridge, New York, Bangalore, Herzliya and Sao Paolo. With $4 billion under management, BVP invests anywhere from $100,000 to $75 million in innovative companies like LinkedIn, Yelp, Skype, CornerstoneOnDemand, Pinterest, Box and Twilio. Over 100 BVP companies have gone public. In India, BVP is focused on technology, internet and mobile investments and is an investor in Snapdeal, Hungama.com, Taxiforsure, Bharat Matrimony, Remedinet, and Anunta Technologies.
Jungle Ventures is a Singapore based venture firm that invests in technology-oriented start-ups and then helps build them in to category leaders. Jungle is reinventing how venture capital is done in Asia with its operations as a service model. Full-time partners and external advisors at Jungle Ventures work with its portfolio companies to help them in various aspects of their business, from strategy and product management, to marketing and recruiting.
Jungle’s portfolio include companies such Singapore based Tradegecko, Travelmob (acquired by NASDAQ listed HomeAway), Fastacash and Crayondata, India based Zipdial (acquired by Twitter), Livspace and Pokkt, Malaysia based iMoney and CatchThatBus, Thailand based Pomelo Fashion and Australia based Edrolo.
Jungle Ventures currently manages a seed to Series A fund that is supported by a strong advisory team comprised of industry veterans and is in the process of raising their second fund.
