Lightbox commits fresh money in Furlenco as part of larger Series B round

Online furniture rental startup Furlenco is raising a new round of investment from existing investor Lightbox Ventures and others.

Lightbox, which closed its new fund in May this year, has put in $5 million in this round, according to filings made with the Registrar of Companies.

The company did not divulge details regarding the total deal value and other investors who are participating in this round. A formal announcement is likely by the middle of October. 

An email sent to Ajith Mohan Karimpana, founder and chief executive, Furlenco, regarding the funding round, did not elicit any response till the time of the filing of this article. 

Furlenco, run by Kieraya Furnishing Solutions Pvt. Ltd, had earlier raised $6 million (Rs 38 crore) in a Series A round of funding from LightBox Ventures.

The new Series B round is at a post-money valuation of around $35 million, as per estimates by VCCEdge, the data research arm of VCCircle. The valuation could change when the company raises more money from other investors. In its Series A round last year, the company had a post-money valuation of $13 million, according to VCCEdge estimates.

The Bengaluru-based company was founded in 2012 by Karimpana, a former vice president at Goldman Sachs. Karimpana has an MS in computer and information science from Temple University (US). The venture was called Rent Ur Duniya earlier, but later re-branded itself as Furlenco in 2013. The online furniture rental sector includes companies such as Cityfurnish, Rentomojo, Rentsher, and others.

In November last year, Bengaluru-based Edunetwork Pvt. Ltd, the company behind home appliances and furniture rental marketplace Rentomojo, had raised $2 million in pre-Series A funding from Accel Partners and IDG Ventures India. Seven months later, it raised about Rs 33.5 crore ($5 million) from existing investors.

Cityfurnish, an online platform for renting furniture, furnishings and appliances, raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Citrus Pay co-founder Jitendra Gupta in December last year.

Commenting on the potential of the online rental space in India, Sameer Rastogi, managing partner at law firm India Juris and chief adviser at investment platform Venture Catalysts, said: “This segment is not yet fully exploited by startups and so far there is no unicorn in this space in India. In my view any startup can succeed in this space only if they bring some innovation and address pain points of society with respect to online renting of commodities in India.”

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