Home Decor platform, Urban Ladder has been looking to raise fresh funds for quite some time. After patiently waiting for months, the company recently raised about $15.2 million (approx. Rs 102 crore) from existing investors. Kalaari, the lead investor for Urban Ladder poured in Rs. 30.64 crore while early investor, SAIF Partners, pooled in Rs. 30.46 crore in the latest round. Other investors include Steadview Capital (Rs. 27.16 crore) and Sequoia Capital (Rs 13.58 crore) among others.
With the fresh capital infusion, Urban Ladder will channelize funds into its offline business plans. The company picked up the offline plan a few months ago, stating extension of offline distribution channels beyond company-owned centers. It will streamline product offerings as well. The company also proposes of evolving a brand new identity for their exclusive offline products.
The fund round even pushed up company’s share prices to Rs. 19,167; whereas it was just Rs. 15,160 during its last fundraise. However, the company has declined to comment on the matter. Insider sources reveal that the company will open at least 3 experience centers in Bengaluru. Further, the platform is seeking partnership with giant retail stores for the growth of the business.
Apart from the partnership with retail stores, Urban Ladder will also partner with paints and white goods appliances brands for cross-selling its products. The Urban ladder will adopt the ancient method of catalog sales. The catalogs will be displayed by kiosks present at the mentioned retail stores while brand partnerships will lead to aggressive marketing of the furniture store.
To surge sales, the company even listed its products on online marketplaces Amazon and Flipkart Ltd. While the latter suffered massive losses due to increased expenses on marketing and higher employee payouts, counter platform Pepperfry had a much better position. The company filed higher revenues and lower losses than Urban Ladder in 2015-16. Moreover, Urban Ladder had a threefold loss, PepperFry registered a four-fold increase in revenues.
The latest funding comes as a relief to the Urban Ladder and will burden down the losses to a certain level. However, the company needs to gear up aggressively to strive through the extensive competition.
