Pepperfry | Successful story of India’s largest furniture store

The e-commerce companies are growing from groceries to furniture along with the necessities of human life. In such a way, the furniture sector has expanded with varieties of products and designs in the nation. Giving a boost to this market, Pepperfry has been flourishing with organized home decor furniture in the market. Pepperfry has acquired businesses to date on a mission to provide big bets in building remarkable footprints in the journey.

Pepperfry startup

The furniture market has been progressing as pandemics hit the world, and demand for furniture for home-office like study tables or office chairs has intensely escalated. With that, Pepperfry was established in 2011, courtesy of Ambreesh Murthy and Ashish Shah. As both founders have the common goal of providing an easy-buy furniture option to the customers, they came up with Pepperfry.com.

Initially started as an online marketplace that suits the lifestyle and fashion categories, in 2013, the idea of furnishings, home decor, and related items came online. And set up a 60-store across the headquarter of Mumbai. Each store gives online and offline experiences to customers, whereas offline has features to get a look and experience the furniture before placing their order.

Leading brand – Pepperfry

All the products offered by the furniture Store are made of high-quality material and go through a stringent quality check before being made available to customers. Altogether it sources its products from over 5000 vendors across India and has its manufacturing unit. With its innovative ideas, it has expanded from 12 employees to 1000, leading as a player in the e-commerce platforms.

Funding and investment 

Ambreesh Murthy and Ashish Shah started a business with an initial investment of $ 5 million. Later with popularity, many industries invested in different series, such as Goldman Sachs, Bertelsmann Investments, Pidilite Industries, Ontrack, State Street Global Advisors, Zodius Technology Fund, and Norwest Venture Partners. Hence, it collected more than $230 million from all its funding rounds.

Founder’s details 

Ambreesh Murthy – CEO of the company, graduated with an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He has worked in Cadbury, ICICI Prudential, and Britannia. Also worked as country manager at eBay India, Philippines, and Malaysia. And in 2009, he served as vice chairman of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

Ashish Sha – Completed Advanced Diploma in Materials Management from the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad. And graduated from Pune in Chemical Engineering from University. Put up a career as Branch Sales Manager at Tradox Pigments & Chemicals in 1998 and later worked at ChemB.com India, C1 India Pvt Ltd, Baazee.com, and eBay. Presently COO of the Pepperfry.

Awards and future holds

As a most promising private tech venture honored as 2012 Red Herring Asia Top 100. For the high retail progress rewarded as Pure-Play e-Retailer of the Year” at the Indian e-Retail Congress 2014. Further, the neon for Best Creative under the category of Retail Advertising for its Outdoor campaign won a Gold Award. As a most promising private tech venture honored as 2012 Red Herring Asia Top 100. As soon as retail saw high progress it rewarded as Pure-Play e-Retailer of the Year” at the Indian e-Retail Congress 2014. Won a Gold award at the neon for Best Creative under the category of Retail Advertising for its Outdoor campaign.

Introduced an option with Augmented Reality(AR) advanced technology, which helps customers to estimate the product before bringing it home visually. 

Inspiration

Furniture retail won the market by establishing a prominent position in both online and offline ways of operation. With such colossal management and the first ever business to introduce a virtual shopping experience, these advancements made Pepperfry stand out in the market and be one of the top 10 start-ups by Entrepreneurs magazine.