Online furniture rental startup Furlenco, which is run by Bengaluru-based Kieraya Furnishing Solutions Pvt. Ltd, has closed a $10 million (approximately Rs 76.28 crore at current exchange rates) funding round, according to reports.
The startup has raised this capital through an equal mix of debt and equity funding, The Economic Times reported citing company executives. The transaction takes the Furlenco’s valuation to $125 million.
The equity portion of the round saw participation from venture capital firm Lightbox and Dabur’s Saket Burman, who committed through personal investment arm Chowdry Associates.
Furlenco has raised the debt by issuing non-convertible debentures to ultra-high-net-worth individuals such as former Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan, former Tata Capital partner Gautham Radhakrishnan. Previously, Gopalakrishnan also backed another startup in the space, Rentomojo.
Bollywood actor Aamir Khan, who is an existing investor in Furlenco, also participated in this funding exercise, though it is not clear at this time what portion of the round he took part in.
Waterfield Advisors, DPNC Advisors, and Quadito acted as advisors to Furlenco.
Ajith Mohan Karimpana, CEO at Furlenco, said the startup will use the capital to achieve its goal of becoming fully profitable within the next 12-18 months
“While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all of us but Furlenco’s subscription business model with monthly recurring revenue allows us to be a lot more resilient than many other startups,” Karimpana said.
VCCircle has reached out to Furlenco for details on the capital raise and will update this report accordingly.
Furlenco was founded in 2012 by Karimpana, former vice president at Goldman Sachs. He holds an MS in computer and information science from Temple University (the US). It designs own furniture and gets it manufactured by third-party vendors.
In September 2018, VCCircle exclusively reported that Furlenco had raised its Series C round of funding last year led by the UAE-based venture capital fund Crescent Enterprises Ventures.
In 2015, Furlenco said it raised $6 million (Rs 38 crore then) in a Series A round from Lightbox alone. In 2016, Furlenco raised $15 million (Rs 100 crore) in its Series B round led by Lightbox.
That year, the company raised $15 million in debt. Then, in late 2017, Furlenco raised Rs 7.7 crore ($1.2 million) in debt funding from Bollywood actor Aamir Khan and four other persons.
It is among a host of furniture rental startups that have raised money in recent times. For example, in November last year, the Bengaluru- and San Francisco-based CasaOne raised $16 million (Rs 114.96 crore) in a Series B round that was led by Accel.
In May, VCCircle reported that online rental marketplace RentoMojo had raised fresh funding from one of India’s most active angel investors. Previously that year, Accel also participated in the company’s Series C round.
