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Startup Street: Furdo’s ‘David Vs Goliath’ Battle With Livspace

A wrap of big stories in the start-up world.

(Source: BloombergQuint)
(Source: BloombergQuint)

Interior design startup Furdo’s co-founder Ishwar Sundararaman speaks to BloombergQuint about the company’s biggest competitor Livspace. Founders of Eko and Yumlane detail plans for their companies, while Mukesh Bansal of Curefit steps down from the board of Swiggy to resolve any perceived conflict of interest.

That’s the buzz on start-up street this week.

How Furdo’s Struggle Led To Early Profitability

Virtual reality powered interior design startup Furdo claims it has managed to turn profitable in just over a year of launch. The “lack of funding” pushed the company to try and break even and then turn profitable.

Launched in July 2015, the startup initially raised $400,000 as seed funding. However, by December 2015, funding was starting to thin out, co-founder Ishwar Sundararaman told BloombergQuint over the phone.

By December we had burnt a lot of the money and still hadn’t figured out the business model. That was the one big challenge to figure out how to make it work. 
Ishwar Sundararaman, Co-founder, Furdo

Instead of letting people go, Furdo asked its employees to take a 50 percent cut in salary. It also started to charge customers for the expertise it offered. Since then, Furdo has collaborated with well known local interior designers and now offers end-to-end services.

What’s next?

Furdo is looking to expand into Chennai, Hyderabad and Managalore within the next 12 months, said Sundararaman. He expects these cities to achieve profitability within three to six months of launching operations. The startup expects to double its revenue every four months, claimed Sundararaman.

Funding would still be welcome as the company would like to put some distance between itself and its competitors (read Livspace), Sundararaman said.

“It’s a David versus Goliath kind of situation,” he said while speaking about the company’s largest competitor in the space. 

Livspace has raised nearly $27 million in funding, according to a company spokesperson. It last received Rs 100 crore from Bessume Ventures in August 2016, the spokesperson said. Livspace already operates in Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai.

Livspace declined to comment on queries related to this report.

Mukesh Bansal Steps Down From Swiggy’s Board

Mukesh Bansal, CEO of Curefit and strategic adviser to Swiggy (Source: Twitter/Mukesh Bansal) 
Mukesh Bansal, CEO of Curefit and strategic adviser to Swiggy (Source: Twitter/Mukesh Bansal) 

Mukesh Bansal, co-founder of health and fitness start-up CureFit Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, has stepped down from the board of food delivery platform Swiggy just six months after he was roped in as a strategic adviser.

Swiggy confirmed the development to BloombergQuint.

Bansal’s decision to step down follows CureFit’s plans to venture into the food delivery segment, a person familiar with the decision told BloombergQuint. Since this overlaps with Swiggy’s business, Bansal decided to exit the company’s board to avoid any conflict of interest, the person added.

Earlier this month CureFit announced that it has acquired online health-food delivery company, Kristys Kitchen, for an undisclosed amount in a cash and stock deal.

Bansal, who had earlier founded online fashion store Myntra, teamed up with Ankit Nagori, chief business officer at Flipkart, to start CureFit last year. The launch is scheduled for later this year.

CureFit did not respond to an email from BloombergQuint.

Facilitating Loans To The Unbanked

Financial services startup Eko hopes to make it easier for people to borrow. The company promises to speed up the borrowing process by offering data to non bank finance companies (NBFCs), based on which loan decisions can be taken. “It will take 15-20 minutes for people to get a loan and with just a few clicks of the button,” said Eko’s co-founder Abhinav Sinha in a phone conversation with BloombergQuint.

A borrower will first have to consent to their information and data being shared with the NBFCs. Following this a credit score can be generated. Eko joins a number of other financial technology start-ups offering similar services, in the hope that people without formal credit scores will seek their help to access a loan.

Eko is targeting the loan segment between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 lakh, said Sinha.

Yumlane Is Ready To Hit Pune And Bengaluru

(Source: Yumlane)
(Source: Yumlane)

Less than a year after it launched, packaged food start-up Yumlane, is ready to scale-up its business to Pune and Bengaluru. The company, which started operations from Mumbai, has seen a good response to its pre-packaged ready-to-eat Asian boxes, Hitesh Ahuja, chief executive officer and founder of Yumlane told BloombergQuint over the phone.

In the last eight months of operations, the company has sold more than 1 lakh boxes, Ahuja claims. It aims to sell nearly 1.2 million boxes by the end of the year.

Yumlane is already in talks with investors for the next round of funding and is looking to raise $3-$5 million within the next six to nine months.