Bangalore-based Homevista Decor and Furnishing Pvt Ltd, which runs online furniture and home design services marketplace, HomeLane.com, has acquired online home interiors marketplace Capricoast for Rs 90 crore ($13.8 million), a company statement said.
As part of the deal, Capricoast’s 120-strong team will be part of HomeLane, while its founder and chief executive Jawad Ayaz will join the board of directors, the statement added.
“This is a coming together of two big players in home design with complementary strengths and expertise. This acquisition also marks the beginning of HomeLane’s next phase of growth and expansion, given that we have already achieved operational profitability,†Srikanth Iyer, co-founder and CEO of HomeLane, said.
Run by Capricoast Home Solutions Private Limited, the company was founded in 2014 by Ayaz, who is also the co-founder of furniture e-tailer Zansaar, which according to a HomeLane spokesperson, is not part of this deal.
Zansaar had raised $6 million from Accel Partners and Tiger Global in 2012.
Capricoast connects customers with manufacturers and suppliers of kitchen solutions and wardrobes. It provides modular kitchen designs along with online tools to customise and order them.
The company had raised $3.5 million in a Series A round led by existing investors Accel Partners India and Singapore-based VC firm RB Investments in December 2015.
In April 2015, it raised $1.25 million in seed funding from Accel Partners India.
“We believe Capricoast’s strong technology core in customer acquisition and lifecycle management will be a perfect foil to HomeLane’s unparalleled strengths in design visualisation and project execution,†Ayaz said.
HomeLane was founded by Iyer in 2014 along with Vivek Seetharaman, Rama Harinath K, Prabhu Venkatesh and Srini Battula. Except Iyer, the rest of the founding team quit the company since last year. Tanuj Chaudhry and Yangchen Lachungpa were later brought in as part of the founding team.
HomeLane offers a virtual design platform and a real-time integrated pricing engine. The startup allows homebuyers to select from hundreds of kitchen, wardrobe or wall unit combinations with different layouts, designs, colours and finishes. Once a homebuyer places an order, an interior designer from HomeLane.com works directly with the buyer to help customise the kitchen or wardrobe according to the apartment space.
Along with the acquisition, HomeLane has also launched its operations in the NCR region, the fifth city after Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai. The company is also planning to set up an experience centre in Gurugram within the next two months.
In March this year, Baring Private Equity Partners India Ltd had invested Rs 20 crore ($3 million) in the company.
In August 2016, HomeLane had raised $6 million in a Series B round from Aarin Capital and Sequoia Capital.
In July 2015, Sequoia Capital led the firm’s Series A round along with Aarin Capital and Growth Story. HomeLane secured Rs 28.3 crore ($4.5 million) in this investment round.
It had also raised a round of seed money from Growth Story, which is led by entrepreneur couple Krishnan and Meena Ganesh.
Till date, the company has raised about $15 million in venture funding.
In September 2015, HomeLane acquired home décor visualisation platform Doowup for an undisclosed amount.
VCCircle had reported that in September this year, Ranjan Pai, co-founder and partner at venture capital firm Aarin Capital, had stepped down from the board of HomeLane.
HomeLane competes with other online furniture players such as Pepperfry and UrbanLadder besides horizontal e-commerce majors such as Flipkart.com and Amazon.
According to market research firm TechNavio, the online home décor market in the country is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 50.42% between 2014 and 2019.
