Rentomojo gets $2M in pre-Series A funding from Accel, IDG

As part of the transaction, IDG's Venkatesh Peddi and Accel's Prashanth Prakash will join Rentomojo's board of directors, the startup said in a statement.

Rentomojo was founded in November last year by IIT Madras graduates Geetansh Bamania and Ajay Nain. The startup allows users to rent furniture, home furnishings and appliances for a minimum of three months. It operates in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Pune. "We want our users to access a personalised lifestyle without actually owning it. We work as a marketplace and keep this business asset light," said Bamania.

The startup, which employs 50 staffers, had raised seed funding from a bunch of unnamed London-based investors last year. Rentomojo joins another Bangalore-based online venture that rents furniture for residential use in raising funds. Kieraya Furnishing Solutions Pvt Ltd, which operates Furlenco, had raised  $6 million (Rs 38 crore) in a Series A round of funding from LightBox Ventures. IDG Ventures India, part of global venture capital firm IDG Ventures, has invested about Rs 1,000 crore in early-stage Indian startups since its inception around nine years ago.

The VC firm has invested in tech startups such as Myntra, Manthan Software Services and Lenskart. It has also backed iProf Learning Solutions, Yatra.com and Hiree.com in its portfolio of about 30 companies.

Most recently, it invested in Cityflo, a bus hailing app that aggregates private mini-buses for daily commuters. Cityflo had received  $750,000 (Rs 4.9 crore) in seed funding from IDG Ventures and an unnamed investor.

Accel Partners recently invested  in MOGLILABS Pvt Ltd, which runs online marketplace for industrial tools Moglix, along with Jungle Ventures in a pre-Series A round.