Furniture leasing has become a booming green industry.
Foreign media news , Furlenco, an Indian furniture rental e-commerce company, recently received $ 2.2 million in new financing. The investor is Chowdry Associates, an asset management company of the Dabur family. According to reports, Chowdry Associates has purchased 653871 convertible preferred shares of Furlenco. So far, approximately $ 560,000 has been paid to Furlenco and the remaining $ 1.68 million has not been paid.
This is part of its Series C funding. In March 2019, Furlenco also raised $ 5.84 million in Series C funding. Furlenco had previously received financing from companies such as Lightbox Ventures, Axis Capital, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Pratithi Trust, Trifecta Capital, etc. in February 2018 $ 30.1 million.
In addition, Furlenco also conducted two rounds of debt financing in July 2019 and August 2019 for a total of $ 1.26 million.
Furlenco, established in 2011, is a subscription-based online furniture rental service platform. Its target user group is high-end customers with annual household income of more than Rs 1 million. Furlenco’s rental furniture is designed by the company, and Furlenco founder Ajith Mohan Karimpana said Furlenco’s goal is to become an IKEA in India. Now Furlenco’s main markets are Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Pune.
The current size of the Indian furniture market is $ 18 billion, of which about 85-90% is offline. Online furniture retailers such as Urban Ladder, Furlenco and Pepperfry meet only 2% of the marketdemand. The Indian furniture rental market has grown rapidly in recent years and is expected to grow to $ 800-850 million in the next few years.
From a global perspective, furniture leasing has become a booming green industry. At present, the scale of the furniture rental market in the United States has reached 44 billion U.S. dollars. Among them, CORT, the leading company, was established in 1972 and was acquired in 2000 at a price of 467 million U.S. dollars. At present, CORT’s business has expanded to 70 countries including the United Kingdom . In addition, Ikea has also launched a furniture rental service .
In China, furniture leasing companies that have been reported include rental cubes , share rent , Dorm , Shake home , Jiajiajia and Easy living etc.