HomeLane aims to raise $35-50 million for business expansion

Technology-led home set up firm HomeLane.com is in discussions with various venture capital and private equity funds to raise $35-50 million (about Rs. 222-317 crores) in the next few weeks as it expands its presence across cities like Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Kochi. The Bengaluru-based firm, which claims to be working on about 100 projects, currently offers services in Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai. “We are in discussions. We are looking at raising between $35 million and $50 million,” HomeLane.com co-founder and CEO Srikanth Iyer told PTI. He added that the proceeds will be used to fund the company’s expansion plans, hiring and technology. The company, however, declined to comment on how much stake it would dilute as part of the fund-raising. In February, HomeLane had closed Series A funding of $4.5 million (roughly Rs. 28 crores) led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. Founded in 2014, HomeLane.com is an online provider of modular kitchen and home furnishing solutions and works with interior designers and small manufacturers. “Next week, we are looking at entering Kochi market and then, Mumbai and Delhi-NCR in the next two months. We are witnessing strong growth. We are growing 30 percent month-on-month. By March next year, we should be clocking monthly revenue of Rs. 30 crores,” he said. According to industry estimates, the Indian home set up market is estimated to be growing at 20 percent CAGR and is a $10 billion (roughly Rs. 63,836 crores) per annum industry in the top 10 cities. The Bengaluru-based firm is also looking at hiring about 150 people by year-end. “As we expand to newer cities, we will need to ramp up headcount rapidly. We expect to add 100-150 people by December this year to our current base of over 200 people,” he said. HomeLane.com had recently introduced a virtual reality based device ‘Kaleido’, which allows users to envision different looks for their kitchens, bedrooms and living rooms in real time, thus helping them make an informed choice. “A major pain point when hunting for furnishing options is the inability to accurately predict what the final setup will look like. One may like a modular kitchen in the showroom, but many times it does not match the floors or walls. Kaleido allows users to see various furnishing options in real time with a rich immersive experience,” he added. PTI