Reliance investor KKR, Ikea and others turn Livspace into a unicorn

• The company has raised $180 million from KKR, Ikea and others.
• It plans to use this capital to enter APAC, MENA and Australia.
• Livspace is the fourth Indian startup to turn into a unicorn in 2022.

Home interior and renovation company Livspace on Tuesday announced that it turned into a unicorn by crossing the billion-dollar valuation mark. The company has raised $180 million in a funding round led by KKR & Co.

Swedish retail Ikea, along with the company’s existing backers like Jungle Ventures, Venturi Partners and Peugeot, also invested in this round. Overall, the company has raised nearly half a billion to date.

The company plans to use this capital to double down on international expansion and take on local competitors like HomeLane, Stokers, At Home Group, Pepperfry and American Furniture Warehouse.

"Our business is growing exponentially in both India and Singapore, and we aim to replicate this playbook, launch new solutions and accelerate our launches across new markets with operations across APAC, MENA and Australia,” Anuj Srivastava, cofounder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Livspace, said in a statement.

So far, four Indian startups have turned into a unicorn in 2022. This includes AI analytics Fractal, edtech startup LeadSchool and software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Darwinbox. Mamaearth too had officially announced its unicorn funding this year, but the development was already reported based on regulatory filings by the end of 2021.

The year 2021 was the best one for Indian startups as four startups turned a unicorn every month. Overall, 44 startups were valued over $1 billion last year. Piyush Goyal, the minister of industry and commerce, hopes that India will create 75 unicorns in 2022.

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