Earlier this month, Pepperfry, the Mumbai-based ecommerce company founded by former eBay India country manager Ambareesh Murty, raised its Series B round of funding - $8 million from existing investor Norwest Venture Partners. Several things have changed inside the company since it went live with its online store a little over a year ago. Startup Central met up with Murty, to find out what has been going on inside Pepperfry in the past year, and how he is plotting the path to breakeven. Edited excerpts: Startup Central: You’ve raised a relatively small Series B round. Why? Murthy: See our model is very different. We don’t think that you need that much money in India to build a really good ecommerce company. We raised $5 million in our Series A round, which is nothing in this market. I would love to get more money at any given point in time. The question is how much do you need? I am of the opinion that over a 12-15 month timeframe, Pepperfry will break even. I am seeing a path to break-even that’s not five years years away. If that is the case then I basically need money just to get till there. Therefore, we didn’t want to raise too much or too little. I think there may be one more round (of fundraising) out there but that, my guess is, would be the final round. Startup Central: How soon into the launch did you decide to focus only on home? Murthy: About three months into the…
