Went to IIT, Became VP of Myntra, left it to build an 10,000 CR company. 1. After graduating from IIT Kanpur, Ramakant Sharma had his claim to fame moment when he became VP of Engineering at Myntra in 2008. While in fashion, he realized a big problem when he could not furnish his home. The Indian home interior industry had unreliable vendors and no standardization. He had to do something. 🤔 2. In 2014, he teamed up with Anuj Srivastava, a Googler, to launch a tech-driven home interiors platform that offered customized solutions, verified contractors, and transparent pricing to streamline home design. Livspace was born. 🚀 3. The idea was simple ⏩ Bring technology and skilled designers and introduce a 3D visualization tool that lets customers preview their designs before execution. They wanted to replace the Indian carpenter and bring standardization with tech. And the idea worked. ✅ 4. As it designed modularised furniture that used 100 skews to produce over 5000 products, Livspace raised 29 CR from Helion, Jungle, and Bessemer Venture Partners, enabling expansion into Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Gurgaon. When competitors were selling loose furniture, It had an in-house team curating a catalogue with combined sets. 🙌 5. Within just two years, it grew to 2500 designers and 5000 homes. Servicing 400 homes daily at a 3BHK price of Rs 8 lakh, it diversified into modular kitchen makeovers at Rs 2 lakh and even wardrobes at Rs 50,000 in six more cities. On 28th September 29, it raised over 500 CR led by TPG Growth and Goldman Sachs and became a 3000 CR company. 📉 6. Seeing their growth, competitors like HomeLane and Pepperfry came with blazing guns. Ramakant adopted a phygital strategy to differentiate, launching offline experience centres and acquiring VR players like YoFloor and DezignUp to strengthen its offerings. But something was missing. 🤔 7. Marketing was crucial. Ramakant also allocated 10-15% of revenue to digital ads, influencer partnerships, and real estate collaborations. The big moment came as it onboarded Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma as ambassadors in 2022. 👇 8. On 8th February 2022, Livspace secured 1350 CR in Series F from KKR. It became the 7th unicorn of the year. 🦄 9. Today, Livspace clocks a revenue of 1185 CR and has 100,000+ completed projects, 5,000+ designers, and 50+ experience centres. It is valued at 10,000 CR and has become India's largest home interior platform. 💪 From leaving his well-defined corporate job to convincing homeowners to digitize interiors to leading a billion-dollar startup, Ramakant's journey proves that technology can disrupt even traditional industries. 🙏
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