Livspace in talks to raise $100 mn

THE ROUND IS EXPECTED TO BE LED BY KHARIS CAPITAL, ALONG WITH SINGAPORE’S GROWTH STAGE INVESTOR VENTURI PARTNERS

MUMBAI: Online home design firm Livspace is in advanced talks to raise $100 million at a valuation of over $500 million, said two people aware of the matter, requesting anonymity.

The round is expected to be led by Kharis Capital, a European investment management firm, along with Singapore’s growth stage investor Venturi Partners, said one of the two people cited above.

Its existing investors, including private equity firm TPG Growth, Swedish furniture firm Ikea and Ratan Tata’s UC-RNT Fund will also participate in the round.

Livspace plans to utilise the money to expand its footprint beyond metros in India, and to ramp up its operations in Singapore. It plans to launch its services in Chandigarh, Kanpur and Lucknow, the people added.

Livspace was launched in late 2014 by Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma, former senior executives of Google (Alphabet Inc.) and Myntra Designs Pvt. Ltd, respectively. It offers an online marketplace for home interior solutions. It also offers software tools for designers to streamline their workflow. While Livspace declined to comment on

Mint’s queries, Kharis Capital and Venturi Partners did not respond to email queries.

Though Livspace is yet to file its annual results for fiscal 2019, a third person said estimated revenue was at $20 million, and may be in the range of $60-80 million for FY20.

For FY18, Livspace’s loss doubled to ₹95 crore on a revenue of ₹41 crore, which had grown 80% year-on-year, as per regulatory filings. Mint, however, could not independently ascertain the loss figures for FY19 and FY20.

Livspace will use the fresh capital to expand offline through its “experience centres” from the existing four stores to 12-15 over the next one year.

Among new investors, both Kharis and Venturi have their origins in Verlinvest, a Belgian firm that is active in India.