Ranjan Pai, co-founder and partner at venture capital firm Aarin Capital, has stepped down from the board of Bengaluru-based Homevista Decor and Furnishing Pvt. Ltd, which runs online furniture and home design services marketplace HomeLane.com.
According to filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Pai relinquished his responsibilities as an additional director to the company’s board in July. The reason behind his exit was, however, not clear. It was also not clear whether Aarin Capital is currently represented on the HomeLane board.
Email queries to Aarin Capital, which also counts former Infosys Ltd finance chief and angel investor TV Mohandas Pai as a co-founder, did not elicit any response till the time of filing this report. Srikanth Iyer, co-founder and CEO of HomeLane, confirmed the development, but declined to divulge further details.
In August 2016, HomeLane had raised $6 million in a Series-B round from Aarin Capital and Sequoia Capital. In July 2015, both Aarin and Sequoia had pumped in $4.5 million during the company’s Series-A round.
HomeLane had also raised a round of seed money from Growth Story, which is led by entrepreneur couple Krishnan and Meena Ganesh. In March, Baring Private Equity Partners India Ltd had invested Rs 20 crore in the company.
The company has so far raised about $13.29 million (Rs 86.83 crore) in external funding, according to VCCEdge, the data and financial research platform of News Corp VCCircle.
Iyer founded HomeLane in 2014 along with Vivek Seetharaman, Rama Harinath K, Prabhu Venkatesh and Srini Battula, all of whom have quit the company since last year. Tanuj Chaudhry and Yangchen Lachungpa have joined as part of the founding team.
The online marketplace offers customised home design solutions, including modular kitchens, wardrobes, storage and entertainment units. It says that it has served over 1,500 customers and claims to have delivered all projects within 45 days. It offers a five-year warranty on its products.
HomeLane, which had initially started its operations across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai with an in-house team of professional designers, gradually pivoted to an asset-light model by shifting its focus on unit economics and profitability.
Iyer said the company may launch its operations in one more city within the next six months, but is yet to zero in on its next port of call. “We are already operationally profitable. We will achieve break-even within a year from now.â€
During 2015-16, HomeLane had registered 10 times growth in gross revenue at Rs 34.13 crore, compared to Rs 3 crore in 2014-15. However, its total expenditure, too, surged nine times from Rs 8.5 crore to Rs 75.5 crore during the period under consideration.
*This article has been modified to update details about the company's founding team.