Online home-design and furnishings marketplace Livspace is looking to create 30,000 design entrepreneurs in India over the next 18-24 months.

To do this, the start-up, which brings together home-owners and designers on its marketplace, has launched a Home Design Automation Platform for designers, which it labels as world’s first innovation in the home design space, out of India.

“The platform is inspired by globally popular technology platforms such as Uber and Airbnb. It allows Livspace’s certified designers — both in-house and freelance interior designers — interior design studios and turnkey contractors to turn entrepreneurs and enjoy the benefits of the conversation-centric, platform-driven e-commerce economy. Designers can improve productivity dramatically from taking on four projects a year to 24 projects a year, increase their earnings fourfold and complete projects at 10x the speed,” Anuj Srivastava, Co-Founder and CEO, Livspace, told.

Srivastava said the platform will generate $2.5 million in revenue per month starting next month and over $100 million in revenue in the next 18 months. The start-up, which offers styled looks and designs for homes, has designed and delivered 1,000 homes — executed by 200 Livspace-certified designers — in Bengaluru, Delhi and NCR over the last eight months with the average order value ranging Rs. 8-15 lakh.

Founded in December 2014 by Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma, Livspace has raised $12.6 million in capital from top venture firms such as Helion Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Jungle Ventures.

Livspace identified a market opportunity in the $25-billion home-design industry in India which is plagued with fragmentation. “This year alone, as many as 2.5-4 lakh new homes will be bought across the major metros, and the vast majority of the buyers will need to get their homes designed, kitchens and wardrobes installed, and make their homes beautiful. The home-design industry is slated to grow to $35 billion in 3-5 years, and within the next two years, 5 per cent of this market is poised to move online,” Srivastava said.

The company is operationally profitable in Bengaluru and is notching up margins of 40-45 per cent, and post-marketing margins of 16-20 per cent.

The Home Design Automation Platform will allow designers to create mood boards; design concepts; access an algorithm-driven library of thousands of editable concepts by style, room, colour, price, import; edit and combine concepts creating bespoke mood boards which can be shared with customers in an automated presentation over the phone or web.

“Designers can drag and drop 2D and 3D products from a catalogue selection of 25,000 products on the Livspace marketplace to create a customised look for the home-owner and discover thousands of home-design products and services on our e-commerce store with transparent vendor prices and up to five years of warranty. The platform also works like a digital assistant for designers to organise all projects and customer conversations, give them access to quality leads, remind them about upcoming meetings, show project progress and so on,” explained Srivastava. The marketplace makes money from the products selected and paid for by home-owners.

The online home-design market is getting heated up with online furniture players such joining the fray this year. Pepperfry Bespoke, a design- and consulting-led service, already contributes to 10 per cent of Pepperfry’s overall revenue while Urban Interiors, a similar service launched by Urban Ladder in April contributes to 12 per cent of its revenue.

Source: Business Line