By the time its initial public offer hits the market, online furniture provider Pepperfry would be in the unicorn club. Unicorn club is that club that has companies with a valuation of more than USD 1 billion, said a top official of the company on Monday.
While sharing plans of expanding offline studios, Pepperfry co-founder Ashish Shah told PTI that the company expects to turn profitable as soon as the market opens.
Shah said that the company will show its first profit mark after the market opens. He also told that Pepperfry is a Rs 1,000 crores turnover company and is very close to becoming very profitable. After this, they will go for an IPO in the next 12-18 months.
Shah also stated that the company is undergoing a structural change. Once that is done, they will go ahead with the DRHP process. He is hopeful that the company will become a billion-dollar business in terms of enterprise value and will soon enough join the unicorn club. Their upcoming IPO will be in the same range, he added.
To date, the company has raised USD 235 million from Norwest Venture Partners, Bertelsmann Investments India (BII), Goldman Sachs. Pepperfry is following the FOFO(franchise-owned franchise operated) model, using which it has announced plans to add 200 offline studios across tier 2 and tier 3 towns.
Customers visiting the Pepperfry studio can experience the products at the studio and order them online later. Mr. Shah wants to open numerous studios in the North East, which are going to be like neighborhood stores spread over 400-500 square feet in the metro cities. The second target is all tier 2 and tier 3 towns. His product reach point goal is to reach out to over 300 cities said.
Studios contribute 30 percent to the overall business. And while adding new ones their contribution to the business will reach up to 40%. These neighborhood stores will come up in at least 100 new cities.
He said that the company is looking to collaborate with young entrepreneurs in this accelerator program who have investment capital of around Rs 15 lakh which will include interior design, real estate cost, and products that will be put on display. With 70 studios opened across 40 cities in the last 6 years, 32 studios out of them are based on the FOFO model.
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