Investors pump in Rs 102 crore in Urban Ladder
The Bengaluru-based online furniture store Urban Ladder has raised about Rs 102 crore in a Series E round from existing and new investors. Investors Kalaari Capital, SAIF Partners, Steadview and Sequoia Capital, with new investors LTR Focus Fund and ABG Capital, chipped in fresh capital. The company was started by Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa in 2012 with Ratan Tata as an early investor.
What is Series E funding?
A discrete round of investment, by which a start-up raises money to fund operations, is counted in a series of alphabetically arranged names for fund seeking rounds. Series E is the fifth among such rounds. A company becomes relatively more mature with every stage.
How has the investment benefited the company so far?
In this round, Kalaari Capital gave Rs. 30.64 crore, while SAIF Partners added Rs. 30.46 crore. Steadview Capital pumped in Rs. 27.16 crore while Sequoia Capital pooled Rs. 13.58 crore. After the fresh investment announcement, Urban ladder's shares were sold at Rs. 19,167 against Rs. 15,160 during last fund-raise of $50 million in April 2015. The company is now valued at Rs. 1,000 crore.
Why does Urban Ladder need fresh funds?
Among several indications of stunted growth, Urban Ladder plans to trim the number of products sold on its platform from about 5,000 a year ago to about 3,000-3,500 units by October. Even as it additionally listed products on online marketplaces Amazon and Flipkart, the company recorded threefold increase in losses for the year ending 31 March 2016 because of higher employee and advertising expenses.
Urban ladder to set up experience stores
Urban Ladder has set aside Rs. 30 crore to expand into the offline segment and set up offline, brand experience stores. The strategy is to take on rival Pepperfry, which already has a big offline presence in major cities and airports. Urban Ladder's first such offline store spanning 3,500 sq ft, located within the company's office premises, went live last October.
