Home Lane entered the commercial interiors business earlier this year and this segment will account for 10% of this year’s sales at around Rs 8,000 crore, Iyer, who is also the company’s chief executive officer, told Mint. .
Citing the lack of peers in the sector, he said the commercial sector alone, branded as ‘Cubico’, could become a Rs 1,000-crore business in the next five years. Ta. “We have players who are big integrators, Infosys office, Microsoft office,” he said. “They are untouchable, but there is no branding, especially between 50 and 500 seats, what we call the SME segment.”
“We believe there should be at least 100 brands in this space and we want to be one of the leading brands,” Iyer said. 80 billion to 10 billion income. ”
However, providing interior solutions to commercial businesses comes with its own challenges. Rhea Sawant, architect and founder of interiors boutique Tinge by Rhea Troptes, says it’s a cost-sensitive market where mid-sized vendors often have tight pricing, and durability is key. The challenge is to provide highly cost-effective interiors within a limited schedule. Design office. “Many commercial spaces are procured on a lease basis, so delivering projects quickly is paramount.”
Home Lane is also working on new services in its mainstay interior business. The company began piloting Wrap Zap four months ago, allowing users to transform small spaces like bedrooms, kitchens, and living rooms with murals, wallpaper, and wall panels in one or two days.
“We are still doing PMF (product market fit) testing. We haven’t invested billions of marketing funds yet, but if we can get PMF, we will do it,” Iyer said.
expansion plan
HomeLane is present in 25 cities, including 7 metropolitan areas and 18 tier-2 cities. According to Shriknath, this number could easily reach 50 in the next two years. “In Tier 2 markets, we find that branded home interior solutions companies are in high demand and tend to pay a premium.”
Srikanth admits that the second and third tier markets are still unproven, but he is not worried as the company has just scratched the surface with metros. “Even in a city like Bangalore, where the infection situation is well known, the proportion of people going to unorganized players is still around 75%. One-third of that goes to organized players. Even if they do, the amount is huge. It’s a combination of activities,” Iyer said. In addition to the markets in which we are already present, we are also moving deeper into new markets. In fact, the bigger opportunities extend further into existing markets. ”
The home interiors sector is expected to be a $20 billion industry, but it is largely driven by unorganized local businesses, with few large-scale businesses emerging. Earlier this month, HomeLane acquired smaller peer Design Cafe.
With this acquisition, the company expanded its target market to more premium customers. While HomeLane is more focused on technology, Design Cafe’s founders are architects and are more focused on the design journey, Iyer said.
Plans were scrapped because Design Café was unable to scale and existing investors were reluctant to inject further capital, the Mint reported.
Iyer sees more consolidation happening in the industry. “Maybe we won’t do it again, but I think it will happen. It’s inevitable and it’s going to happen. It’s just because it’s harder to get funding.”
According to Tracxn data, the total funding in the interior market has so far decreased from $200 million in 2022 to $26 million in 2023 and $0.028 million in 2024.
HomeLane and Livspace are two leading interior design startups that have raised significant investment capital from major investors.
Homelane has raised a total of $160 million in funding from Westbridge Capital, Peak XV, Accel, JSW Ventures and others. The company raised $27 million in its latest round earlier this month. The company plans to use the funding to expand its presence and invest in newer solutions.
Other players in the market include Arrivae, Bonito Design, and Decorpot.
mighty ambition
Iyer said Homelane aims to quadruple its revenue to Rs 2,500-3,000 crore over the next five-six years on the back of new product categories and expansion plans.
“We are looking at revenue of Rs 100-200 billion in the next two to three years and we believe it will reach Rs 200-300 billion in the next two years,” Iyer said. Together, HomeLane and Design Cafe generated a revenue of Rs 761 crore in FY24. , HomeLane accounted for Rs 618 crore and the company posted a loss of Rs 173.5 crore in FY23.
