Merger: Home interior startups HomeLane and DesignCafe are in the process of a share swap merger with a stock split valuation of 85 to 15, as per reports.
The combined entity would be valued for $400 million, as per people cited in the report.
HomeLane was founded in 2014 as an online platform providing interior design solutions. Backed by Sequoia Capital, the Bengaluru-based company is in the B2C space in the Retail, Real Estate and Construction Tech market segments.
Both HomeLane and DesignCafe grew by 15-20 per cent in FY23, and the valuation after this merger for the former will reach $337 million.
Chennai-based DesignCafe is valued at $60 million for the transaction, and is backed by WestBridge Capital, Fireside Ventures.
WestBridge will additionally pump in $7 million towards the merged entity, while the investment will happen at a 20 per cent discounted valuation of around $270 million. The round size can increase upon investor interest.
There have also been speculations of HomeLand merging with rival Livspace. Both Homeland and DesignCafe are direct rivals of the firm, along with Bonito Designs.
Livespace was founded in 2014 as an interior design solutions company for kitchens, wardrobes and storage. The Bengaluru-based company has raised a total funding of $522M over 13 rounds, as per data platform Tracxn.
Their latest funding round was Series F in 2022 for $184 million, and saw the participation of KKR, Jungle Ventures, Venturi Partners, Reno Asia Holdings and EDBI.
DesignCafe was founded in 2015 by architects and designers Gita Ramanan and Shezan Bhojani.
Homeland had raised a Series F round in 2023 worth $9.1 million from existing investors, including Accel, Peak XV Partners and Evolvence India. The merger is expected to close in the coming six to eight weeks.
