Online furniture marketplace Pepperfry.com, has raised $100 million (around Rs. 640 crore) in a fresh round of funding led by US investment bank Goldman Sachs and Zodius Technology Fund, a partnership between Zodius and Avendus Capital, a leading India-based financial services firm.
The company’s existing investors Bertelsmann India Investments (BII) and Silicon Valley-based Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) also participated in the new round. The investment is considered as the largest quantum of investment raised by any Indian e-commerce furniture marketplace.
Founded in January 2012, the Mumbai-based company sells products in various categories like furniture, home decor, lamps and lighting, bath and body, kitchen, housekeeping among others. Last May, Pepperfry has raised around $15 million from Bertelsmann India Investments along with Norwest Venture Partners, taking the total fund raised to $128 million till date.
Pepperfry will utilise the fresh capital to expand its logistics footprint in Tier-III and Tier-IV cities by adding to its growing fleet of delivery vehicles. It will also open new distribution centres and expand its carpenter and assembly service network.
“Over the next year, Pepperfry will quadruple its technology and engineering team with a focus on leveraging augmented reality on mobile to further enrich the buying experience,” the company said.
Commenting on the investment Ambareesh Murty, Founder & CEO of Pepperfry said, “Our goal is to be the place where modern Indian families shop for their homes. While we are on this mission, we will benefit tremendously from the global insight of Goldman Sachs and the business savvy of Zodius as they join the Pepperfry board. Our existing investors, Norwest and Bertelsmann, have been great partners and I thank them for reiterating their faith in our team.”
Apart from selling products online, the company also employs carpenters and operates a fleet of over 150 delivery vehicles. Recently, the company launched its mobile application and it expect to see an around one million downloads of the app over the next three months.
Ankur Sahu, Co-Head of Private Equity at Goldman Sachs in Asia said, “We have a strong conviction for the theme of domestic consumption growth in India. Goldman Sachs continues to back high-quality local entrepreneurs to build significant businesses that create and deliver value to the everyday lives of the country's young, billion plus population. Through this most recent partnership in Pepperfry.com, we intend to leverage our global expertise in the sector to help create a large, differentiated leader in India’s rapidly growing eCommerce industry.”
