Retail, fashion and grocery conglomerate Future Group will be buying online furniture retailer FabFurnish for an undisclosed amount, reports Mint. Future Group plans to leverage the online platform and delivery model of FabFurnish to markets where it doesn’t have offline stores or areas with minimal reach.
Mint pegs the value of the deal at Rs 15-20 crore ($2.25-3 million) in cash based on sources and states that Future Group will retain the FabFurnish brand and use it to bring its Home Town furniture store online. All of the startup’s team is expected to join Future Group, the report added. Future Group confirmed this development to Mint. MediaNama is yet to hear from FabFurnish and will update this if we hear from them.
Note that in October last year, Future Group had formed a strategic alliance to sell its products on Amazon’s India marketplace. In September 2015, it tied up with Hybris Software to converge its digital and physical channels.
Previous developments at FabFurnish:
– Last September, FabFurnish appointed Nimit Kumar as its chief technology officer, and Kumar would be responsible for technology innovation and expanding the company’s service and product portfolio.
– In the same month, the company moved from being a furniture marketplace to a “content-driven” platform for discovery and sale of curated products. The company claimed that it would engage with users weekly through feature stories, curated brand and designer shops.
– In July 2015, co-founders Vikram Chopra and Mehul Agrawal stepped down from daily responsibilities, while senior directors Ashish Garg and Ankita Dabas took over Chopra’s and Agarwal’s roles. Chopra and Agrawal would continue as advisors at FabFurnish.
– In March 2015, it launched a shipping solutions provider called FabOne. In January 2015, Vikram Chopra had told Medianama, that 30% of its sales came from Tier II and III cities and the number was increasing.
Rocket Internet’s Indian troubles:
– Mint had previously reported that Rocket Internet was looking to sell the Indian arm of Foodpanda, the online food delivery service.
– Rocket Internet was also looking to sell Printvenue, a charge Printvenue denied in January by issuing a statement from Bipin Narang, co-founder and Global CEO, “this rapid growth has been made possible by our focus on empowering small business and self-employed professionals to effectively market their businesses using Printvenue products. We also service individual buyers who look to personalize products with their photos, logos or names for self-use or gifting”.
– Furthermore, it was also looking to sell Jabong, the online fashion company. In September 2014, Rocket Internet had merged Jabong with four other online fashion retailers in Latin America, Russia, Middle East, South-East Asia and Australia to create Global Fashion Group.
Developments in the online furniture domain:
– In February, Urban Ladder appointed Sanjay Gupta as its chief marketing officer. In April 2015, it secured an undisclosed amount of funding and also raised $50 million in a series C round of funding.
– In September, MebelKart acquired the crowd bargaining platform 53central for an undisclosed amount. And a month prior, it raised $20 million from AskMe.
– In July 2015, PepperFry raised $100 million in funding.
– In August 2015, Livspace raised $8 million in a round of funding.
– In February 2015, HomeLane raised $4.5 million in funding.
Our Future Group coverage here.
Image Credit: Phillip Pessar under CC BY 2.0
