Fevicol maker Pidilite Industries leads $40 mn round in Pepperfry

Mumbai-based Pidilite Industries, maker of adhesive brands such as Fevicol, Dr Fixit and FeviKwik, has led a $40 million growth round in omnichannel furniture platform Pepperfry. 

Existing investors Goldman Sachs, Norwest Venture Partners, Bertelsmann India and State Street Advisors also participated in the current round.

Run by TrendSutra Platform Service, the Mumbai-based furniture firm has so far raised $235 million in various rounds, a statement said.

Pepperfry’s last funding was in 2018 when it raised $38 million from asset management company State Street Global Advisors, an arm of State Street Corporation having $2.8 trillion assets under management.   

Pepperfry plans to use the capital from the latest funding to double its offline retail footprint from the current 40, expand its supply chain and enter emerging segments such as mattresses. UrbanLadder, Pepperfry’s peer launched its offline stores in 2017. UrbanLadder launched six stores in Bengaluru and Delhi NCR and had said that one-third of its revenues comes from brick-and-mortar stores.

Founded in January 2012 by Ambareesh Murty and Ashish Shah, Pepperfry claims to operate with 400 trucks and 250 carpenters in 19 hubs. It said it is present in 500 cities in the country and aims to service over a thousand cities by next year.

In November, it opened a warehouse in Bengaluru to improve delivery rates and expand its presence in the southern states. The region contributes over 40% to the online marketplace’s business, the company had said earlier.

In the financial year 2018-19, Pepperfry widened losses to Rs 183.49 crore from Rs 106.72 crore a year earlier. 

It started its first physical store in 2014. Originally a furniture marketplace, Pepperfry went on to expand operations in the home decor segment.

The company’s plan to list its shares on the exchanges, announced a couple of years ago, is yet to fructify.   

Pepperfry competes with Sequoia Capital-backed Urban Ladder, which is riddled by fund crunch and layoffs, but posted a profit in FY19. In 2018, ecommerce major Flipkart also made an offline debut with its furniture experience centre in Bengaluru.  Global budget brand IKEA also entered India with a massive store in Hyderabad in 2018.