Early in February, Urban Ladder bagged fresh investments of nearly $15.2 million, poured in by existing investors Kalaari and SAIF Partners. The online furniture store has since been working on the extension of its services and expansion of business. In lieu of the same, it has now partnered with interior design and decor platform HomeLane for an additional channel of distribution.
Founded in 2014, Bengaluru-based Homelane helps property owners furnish and install fixtures in their new apartments and houses. The platform founded by Rama Harinath and Srikanth Iyer operates on a guaranteed on-time delivery and after-sale services business model. It even secured funding worth $4.5 million in Series A round led by Sequoia Capital with participation from Aarin Capital, late in February 2015.
This partnership shows Urban Ladder is tapping every available avenue for revenues so as to boost up the platform’s customer base. With the assistance of HomeLane, the company aims to acquire new customers at a marginal cost and marketing expenses. It will work on a commission model with the second-hands store and convert the new home buyers coming to HomeLane’s platform into their own customers.
Detailing the prospects of this partnership, Sanjay Gupta, chief marketing officer at Urban Ladder said,
The customers who come to the HomeLane platform for modular and fittings solutions for their homes also have a need for loose furniture such as sofa, beds and other units which we would be providing them.
Urban Ladder hopes that their new multi-channel distribution model will account for 4% of the furniture brand’s business over the next three years. It is also engaged in advance with other such business platforms and refurbished stores to increase its presence in India. The PepperFry rival might also grab financing solution providers to enhance its services for the customers.
Urban Ladder has been looking for such collaboration opportunities with offline retailers and stores from past six months or so. It applied for a single-brand retail licence around the same time and further proposes of evolving a brand new identity for their exclusive offline products. The company recently collaborated with GoZefo, a refurbished home products platform, for its exchange programme and initiated furniture sale on e-tailer websites such as Amazon and Flipkart.
