With this deal, Pepperfry will foray into commercial fit-out projects in retail, banking and HORECA (hotel, restaurant and cafe) segments. Kapuria will be responsible for driving business solutions for commercial, civil interior design and turnkey solutions.
“Rahul comes with an experience of 25 years and over the past eight years. His company Brandmakerr has built a strong customer franchise in the design and build and fit-out space for retail and F&B sectors. This partnership with Brandmakerr opens an entirely new area of business for Pepperfry, said Ashish Shah, co-founder and chief operating officer, Pepperfry.
Brandmakerr’s client projects have commenced transition under Pepperfry. The company’s current prospect lies in associating with large players in retail, food and beverage, airports and banking industry, it noted.
Started by Kapuria in 2014, Brandmakerr is a commercial interior solutions company. It has completed projects across 21 cities in India with clients like Amazon, Hamleys, Tata Starbucks, Domino’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Max, Raymonds and Shoppers Stop among others.
Mint had reported that Pepperfry planned to file for an initial public offering (IPO) in the first half of 2022 and raise a pre-listing funding round by the end of the year.
In a relatively young online furniture market, Pepperfry competes not only with vertical e-tailers but also horizontal players such as Amazon India and Flipkart which have been ramping up their offerings.
There has also been a fair bit of consolidation in the space, with Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) acquiring online furniture seller Urban Ladder Home Decor Solutions Pvt Ltd last year for ₹182.12 crore, and expanding its presence in India’s fast-growing e-commerce market.
Since 2018, Pepperfry has been on a journey to turn profitable and focused on bringing down costs and paring losses in 2019-20.
