Exclusive: Customised furniture startup Stitchwood raises $200K in angel funding

Mumbai-based customised furniture startup Stitchwood has raised $200,000 (around Rs 1.3 crore) in its third round of funding from Deepak Gupta, co-founder, Equity Crest and a bunch of unnamed angel investors, including high-net worth individuals (HNIs).

"We plan to raise about $400,000 in the third round of funding and have already raised $200,000. We have also got a commitment of another $100,000," Ajit Shegaonkar, co-founder, Stitchwood told Techcircle.

The startup aims to utilise the funds for operations, marketing initiatives and enhancing customer experience.

Equity Crest is a platform that helps early-stage ventures connect with angel investors and VC firms.

In July 2015, Tangramme Furnishing Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which runs Stitchwood, had raised $400,000 in an angel round from members of Powai Lake Ventures and a few individual angel investors. It had earlier raised $100,000 in its seed funding round from angel investor Ajeet Khurana besides other investors.

Stitchwood was founded in 2014 by IIT Bombay alumni Shegaonkar and Vikas Nair. Shegaonkar is an alumnus of University of Illinois and was working as vice president at Deutsche Bank before starting this venture. Nair, an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus, was the chief financial officer at Steadview Capital.

The startup allows users to design their own furniture using the tools on the platform or upload the image of the furniture on the platform. With the online 3D design tool, Stitchwood allows customers to visualise their furniture design and helps them create their own furniture.

Stitchwood is currently serving customers in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi-NCR region and claims to be growing by 45% on a month-on-month basis. The average ticket size of customised furniture sales is more than Rs 1 lakh. The startup gets about 1000 queries on a monthly basis.

"In a span of just six to seven months, our average order size has jumped from under Rs 50,000 to above Rs 1.5 lakh, resulting in operational profitability and helping us break even much earlier than planned," added Shegaonkar.

The firm has so far tied up with more than 200 micro, small medium enterprises (MSMEs) to manufacture the furniture.

While startups such as FabFurnish and Pepperfry are marketplaces for readymade furniture, the customised furniture segment is also catching investor interest.

In January, Bangalore-based startup Infurnia Furnishings Pvt Ltd had raised seed investment of $160,000 from early-stage venture capital firm Idein Ventures.

Hyderabad-based custom-made furniture e-tailer Customfurnish.com, which allows customers to choose the colour, size, design and style of their furniture, secured about $4.5 million in a fresh round of funding from Bangalore-based family office Agnus Capital in December last year.

In the same year, Bangalore-based CapriCoast.com Home Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which offers an online 3D catalogue besides customisation tools for its modular furniture, raised $3.5 million in a Series A round led by existing investors Accel Partners India and Singapore-based VC firm RB Investments.

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