HomeLane raises $50mn funding from IIFL AMC, Stride Ventures, others

Home interiors company HomeLane on Thursday said it has raised USD 50 million (about Rs 371 crore) in funding, led by IIFL AMC's Late Stage Tech Fund, OIJIF II (Oman India Joint Investment Fund) and Stride Ventures.

The series E round also saw participation from existing investors - Pidilite, Evolvence, NuVentures, Sequoia and Accel.

With the latest infusion, HomeLane has raised over USD 104 million (about Rs 765 crore) in funding over the last seven years. The company, however, did not disclose its valuation.

The RainMaker Group acted as the sole adviser on the transaction. HomeLane also counts JSW Ventures, Growth Story, Aarin Capital, Baring Private Equity Partners, RB Investments and BCCL among its investors.

''We were oversubscribed by about three times for the round. Since we have been profitable operationally for almost a year now, we decided to raise a smaller round... the pandemic - during the waves - has had its negative impact - but we have grown and we are looking at a 100 per cent growth year-on-year from last year,'' HomeLane co-founder Srikanth Iyer told PTI.

The new funding will help HomeLane accelerate its growth, with a revenue target of Rs 2,500 crore by the financial year 2023-24.

Last month, HomeLane had announced a three-year strategic partnership with ace cricketer, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, as an equity partner and brand ambassador.

The latest round of funding will be used towards accelerating expansion into newer markets, investing further in technology and brand-building initiatives, HomeLane co-founder Tanuj Choudhry said.

''We are looking to invest significantly in branding and really becoming the go-to brand for home interiors in tier II and III cities...we've had quite a few really solid products and tech to make consumer experience better and supply chain better...there are still several things around visualisation experience, design-to-manufacturing that we want to invest (in) much more significantly,'' he added.

Choudhry said the company aims to expand its presence in 18 cities to about 25 cities by March, and ''believes that the top 50 cities in the country are clear markets for it to expand into over the next 2-3 years''.

''In addition, we are also building out 3-4 verticals to add to our core modular furniture offering. We have been building out painting, a false ceiling as a vertical and these are all as unorganised as carpentry was about 7-8 years ago,'' he added.

He noted that HomeLane is looking at investing Rs 45-50 crore in marketing initiatives over the next six months.

Asked if the company was looking at foraying into overseas markets, Choudhry said India is the ''current here and now'' focus for HomeLane.

''There is so much to do in India...we are also trying to get a lay of the land with SouthEast Asia and the Middle East, so we might experiment with a few regions over the next four quarters or so. We have to make sure we do it right rather than we do it fast,'' he added.

HomeLane's tech and asset-light model allowed the company to scale and record cash profitability in November 2020. Growing consumer demand for branded interior services, reduction in fixed costs, increase in average order value, and bundling of supplementary services to its offerings helped the company make its business operations agile.

Established in 2014, HomeLane had recorded Rs 230.4 crore operating revenues for the year ended March 31, 2020.

Iyer said the company closed the financial year 2020-21 at Rs 268 crore in operating revenue, and expects this to grow to Rs 600 crore in the financial year 2021-22 (revenue run rate of Rs 900 crore) and further to Rs 2500 crore by financial year 2023-24.

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