Furniture renting firm Furlenco sees huge opportunity, mulls expansion

Tired of moving cities every three years and disposing off your costly furniture dirt cheap? Next time, you could simply rent furniture from Furlenco, a Bengaluru-based start-up, for as low as ₹1,500 a month.

The company, which rents out furniture on a monthly subscription model, says it is targeting urban migrant population in white collar jobs. Furlenco, which recently raised $6 million from Lightbox Ventures, said it will be rolling out its services in Mumbai shortly.

“We have noticed that in the current economic scenario, people move cities or homes every three years. In the process, they sell expensive furniture at a much lower value. Moreover, even if you are not moving it is quite a tedious to pick up the right furniture to suit your needs,” Ajith Karimpana, Founder, Furlenco, said.

Karimpana said that Furlenco takes responsibility for everything- from the time a user lands on the website to select the furniture, to renting, to sending over a team to set it up, to taking it back, or putting the subscription on pause.

The former Goldman Sachs professional said its subscriptions start between ₹1,500 and ₹7,500. Asked about its client base, he said the company, which currently has presence only in Bengaluru, has 1,000 active users. “We will be introducing our services in Mumbai. Our aim is to be present in top 10 cities in the next two years,” he said adding that in case a customer is bored of a certain type of furniture, they can ask the company to change the décor.

Siddhart Talwar, Partner, at VC firm Lightbox, which invested in the company, said they saw a huge opportunity and scalability in the business. “Furniture renting is a huge business in developed markets. In India, there is a segment of people for whom a certain kind of furniture is always out of reach. Furlenco can change this perception,” he added.

Online furniture business has seen a significant growth with UrbanLadder, Fab Furnish and Pepperfry, however, there are hardly any players in the renting business.

Mumbai based Rentmojo is another start-up in this domain. The overall furniture market is estimated at $20 billion, of which less than 10 per cent is in the organised space.