According to various persons familiar with the situation,
HomeLane, a home interior business backed by former Indian cricket captain
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, wants to earn up to Rs 1,500 crore through an initial
public offering that is expected to hit the market by mid-2022.
Bank of America, Axis Capital and ICICI Securities NSE -3.90
% have been hired to run the initial public offering (IPO), said the people.
They said 25-30% stake will be offered in the proposed IPO.
It will be a combination of primary and secondary shares
where some existing investors, including Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners,
will make part exits.
At present, about 70% stake in Bengaluru-based HomeLane is
held by investors including Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, IIFL AMC, Oman
India Joint Investment Fund, Stride Ventures, Pidilite, Evolvence, K
Ganesh-backed Growth Story, Aarin Capital, Baring Private Equity Partners, RB
Investments, JSW Ventures and NuVentures.
HomeLane CEO Srikanth Iyer and Sequoia spokesperson declined
to comment on the matter while queries emailed to Accel Partners did not elicit
any response.
Founded in 2014 by Srikanth Iyer and Tanuj Choudhry,
HomeLane provides end-to-end personalised home interior solutions. The company
has served more than 20,000 customers through 34 experience centres in 19
cities of India.
In September, HomeLane had raised Rs 370 crore ($50 million)
in a Series E funding round led by IIFL AMC’s Late Stage Tech Fund, Oman India
Joint Investment Fund and Stride Ventures. The company has raised a total of
more than Rs 765 crore ($104 million) in the past seven years. In this latest
round, HomeLane was valued at Rs3600 crore, said sources. It reported revenue
of Rs 270 crore for 2020-21.
Dhoni joined HomeLane as an equity partner and brand
ambassador in August of last year. He is the first celebrity to support an
end-to-end home interiors brand, as well as HomeLane’s first brand ambassador.
The company acquired back an employee stock option plan
(Esop) for Rs. 27 crore last week. Active employees had the ability to exercise
up to 35 percent of their vested Esops, while former employees were given 100
percent liquidity.
In the recent past, a handful of Indian home interior startups
have been on the radar of global investors.
Startups such as HomeLane , Livspace , Tomorrow
Capital-backed Bonito Designs , Accel Partners-backed Spacejoy and Infurnia
keep expanding the businesses by leveraging investors’ funding.
Bengaluru-based Livspace has raised a cumulative capital of
$228 million till date. It is backed by Ingka Investments, TPG Growth, Goldman
Sachs, UCRNT, Bessemer Ventures, Tahoe Investment Group, Mercer Investments,
EDB
Investments, Trifecta Capital, Saint Gobain, Saudi retail
firm ASG and Kharis Capital. KKR & Co is reportedly in advanced talks to
invest about $200 million in Livspace, at a post-money valuation of $1.3
billion. The Indian interior design business was valued $23 billion in 2020,
led by the fast-growing real estate market, and is predicted to rise by $15
billion in the next seven years.
According to statistics gathered by Refinitiv, Indian
companies might have raised a record $16.59 billion through 120 public
offerings in 2021, compared to $3.64 billion raised through 44 issues a year
ago.
According to bankers and
analysts, eight Indian technology startups will go public in 2021, and the IPO
frenzy will continue. Amounts of up to Rs 44,000 crore, excluding LIC, are
expected to be collected by March 31, 2022. Courtesy: www.economictimes.indiatimes.com
