Started by Zansaar's co-founder, modular furnishing service provider CapriCoast raises $1.25 million

Bangalore-based online modular furnishing solutions provider, CapriCoast.com has raised $1.25 million in a seed round led by Accel Partners India. Starting with modular furniture, CapriCoast.com plays in home solution buying in India.

CapriCoast has been started by Jawad Ayaz who also co-founded Zansaar.com along with Vinod Chandran. Bangalore based Zansaar had raised $6 million from Accel Partners and Tiger Global back in 2012. Zansaar has been steadily declining in traffic (source: Alexa and SimilarWeb) but with the recent upsurge in the home and furnishing segment, things might start looking upwards again. With common investors, the press statement also mentions that CapriCoast and Zansaar will use each other’s platforms to increase their user base.

CapriCoast claims to have 1000’s of deliverable designs with and an expertise in kitchens and wardrobes, to suit any design inclination and every budget. The website relies on online customization tools & free design consultations to ensure a good customer experience.

“The $10B Modular furnishing market in India, is mostly unorganized with minimal quality standardization, obfuscated pricing and a tedious, high-friction purchase process. We want to change this by providing an engaging, never before customer experience”, said Jawad Ayaz, founder and CEO, CapriCoast. He further added, “CapriCoast.com’s online model eliminates middlemen and brings in cost efficiencies that are passed on to the customer, making it possible for the price of a world class modular kitchen to be 20-25% lower than any other comparable offerings in the market."

Prashanth Prakash, Partner, Accel Partners India Ventures said, “We see massive growth in the modular furnishing market in India, and see CapriCoast’s disruptive online-led approach as offering the most customer value in terms of product range, transparent pricing and ease of buying."

Currently CapriCoast.com is available in Bangalore and will use the seed funds to expand to all the 6 metros in India, by end of 2015. Most recently Furlenco raised $6 million from Lightbox ventures which is in the furniture rental space. There are a bunch of other startups in the space and consolidation seems to be just around the corner. With the funding infusion in CapriCoast, the idea seems to diversify and broaden the base which also holds Zansaar to grab a bigger pie of the market and give it another push.

Website: CapriCoast