Livspace announced on Tuesday it passed over the billion-dollar valuation mark after generating $180 million in the latest funding round directed by KKR & Co, as it appears to double down on international growth and take on local opponents.
The home renovation forum is the 86th “unicorn” from India, according to Venture Intelligence Unicorn Tracker, in a period of record grant in Indian start-ups that witnessed 43 firms unite the club last year alone. Swedish retailer Ikea, among other early contributors Jungle Ventures, Venturi Partners and Peugeot Investments, also financed in the round.
Livspace, a Singapore-registered company with notable operations in India, has lifted about $450 million to date. The company, established by Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma in 2015 to help customers furnish homes, plans to use the fresh capital to invest in its core markets of India and Singapore and reach new countries.
“Our business is growing exponentially in both India and Singapore”, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Anuj Srivastava told in a statement. He further revealed that the firm objective is to imitate this playbook, launch new outcomes and quicken our launches across new markets with projects across APAC, MENA and Australia.
For private-equity company KKR, the agreement is the newest in a series of agreements in the consumer internet space including Indian eyewear retailer Lenskart, China’s digitized dairy startup Adopt A Cow, and tiny enterprises-focused platforms GrowSari and KiotViet in South East Asia.
