CityFurnish: Easy and Affordable Furniture Rental

1) The Founder

Neerav Jain

2) The Idea

The rental economy is nearly mainstream and Jain, whose family is into furniture exports, decided to start a furniture and consumer durables rental business. Initially, the idea was to be an aggregator of small rental firms, but that model suffered due to quality and delivery issues. So, Jain leveraged his family's manufacturing expertise to start a full-stack model - it designs, manufactures, runs its fulfilment centres and does the delivery when customers place orders for furniture rental via its website. For consumer durables, it partners with brands such as LG, Samsung and Whirlpool.

3) Backers

CityFurnish has raised $1.2 million from Brand Capital and a couple of angel investors, including Jitendra Gupta, Co-founder of Citrus Pay and MD of PayU India, and Manoj Gupta, Director of Credit Suisse.

4) Growth, Competition

The company started with furniture for both residential and commercial use. Later on, it added home appliances and fitness equipment. In the B2B space, its customers include Lemon Tree Hotels, Pizza Hut and Republic of Chicken besides co-working space providers. Jain says his company has been net profitable over the past two years and expects to triple its top line to Rs 21-22 crore in the current fiscal. He thinks it is achievable due to its focus on B2B that offers higher margins and lower refurbishment costs as the company uses Sheesham wood for its furniture. Its key competitors include Furlenco, Rentickle, RentoMojo and Fabrento.

5) What Makes It Different

Its design philosophy and the value-add philosophy. It caters to the aspirational segment, aged between 24 and 37. The furniture is made of Sheesham wood while other rental companies mostly provide the cheaper medium density fibreboard (MDF)-based units. Next comes turnaround time - the company promises to deliver within three days of placing an order. After six months, a user can upgrade to new furniture without any additional cost. CityFurnish launches new ranges of furniture every quarter. Third, it offers free relocation when a customer shifts to a city where it operates, namely, NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune.