The renowned online home and lifestyle store, Pepperfry has raised $40 million in series F funding led by Indian adhesives manufacturing company PidiliteIndustries.
The Mumbai-based company secured Rs 250 crore as part of its Series E from State Street Global Advisors in March 2018.
In September 2016, the company had got $30 million under the Series E round from Goldman Sachs and Bertelsmann Investments. Besides, Pepperfry had closed its series D, C, B, and A rounds at $100 million, $15 million, and $5 million, respectively.
This unique online platform was founded in 2011. Two friends, Ambareesh Murty and Ashish Shah were the brains behind the brand. It started as a horizontal online marketplace focusing on fashion and lifestyle.
Pepperfry is headquartered in Mumbai and has offices, studio stores, and warehouses in different cities like Delhi, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Ahmadabad, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Goa, Bengaluru, Kochi, Chennai, Jodhpur, Ghaziabad, and Vadodara.
In the date today, this online platform provides over 1.2 lakh products to select from in multiple categories like furniture, decor, lamps and lighting, furnishings, kitchen, dining, housekeeping, hardware, and electrical.
Recently, Pepperfry launched its furniture rental services; it is available in the top 8 cities in India.
Present-day, Pepperfry is one of the leading online furniture startups in the country. The company has reported annual revenue of Rs 207 crore, a 47% rise in FY19, as compared to Rs 140.60 in FY18.
Its losses widened 72 percent in FR19 to Rs 183 crore compared to last year. The total expense of Pepperfry in the financial year was reported as Rs 390 crore, of which 43.7 percent was spent on advertising only.
Pepperfry is owned and operated by Trendsutra Platform Services Private Limited and currently works with about 10,000 sellers, out of which 3,500 sellers get the order in a month.
Today, Pepperfry claims to be the largest B2C distribution company in India having 120lakh monthly visions on its online platform.
Pepperfryentered as a legend in its category and was introduced with a unique concept. It is the brainchild of former eBay CEO Ambareesh Murty and one of his former colleagues at eBay, Ashish Shah.
In its initial days of launch, the company had a line of departmental stores featuring apparel, bags, accessories, furniture and home decor, Jewellery as well as Perfumes and cosmetics.
In the year 2012, Pepperfry was shifted from being a marketplace for lifestyle. Next year, it shifted to the marketplace only for furniture. Today, the company has over 5,000 pieces of furniture, in a wide variety.
The company is focused on highlighting the variety of their product. They serve all kinds of people from first-time house owners to high-end brands.
In the last months of 2014, the firm opened its first studio.
We cannot deny the fact that the online furniture sector is a crowded market but, Pepperfry has always succeeded in keeping a balance between themselves and the rest of the market in their investment pitches.
Pepperfry has successfully set up the Last-Mile Delivery in 127 plus towns and cities directly. In February 2017, it achieved the milestone of serving over four million customer orders.
Because of its unique business model and excellent service, Pepperfry has been honoured with many awards and accolades. It received the "2012 Red Herring Asia Top 100" award which honors the most promising private technology ventures from Asia.
Another company won the "Pure-Play e-Retailer of the Year" at the Indiane-Retail Congress 2014 which recognizes outstanding performance and innovation in retail.
The Gold award at the Neons for Best Creative under the category of RetailAdvertising for its Outdoor campaign – 'Happy Furniture to You' was one of the vital reorganizations that the company received.
AmbareeshMurty and Ashish Shah both were ex-eBay executives. Ambareesh spent more than five years at eBay, and in the last 3.5 years, he was the CEO. He had a rocking time there and while his tenure at eBay; Ambareesh saw the potential for e-commerce in India.
His thoughts about the opportunity in India were huge and always had an entrepreneurial streak.
So he took the foundation of his own company. Currently, Ambareesh serves as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The co-founder is Ashish Shah; he is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the company.
