Indian venture debt firm BlackSoil pours $2.7m into furniture rental firm Furlenco

India’s BlackSoil Capital, a venture debt platform, announced it has invested 200 million rupees (US$2.7 million) in Kieraya Furnishing Solutions Private Limited (Furlenco) as a venture debt facility.

Ankur Bansal, co-founder and director of BlackSoil / Photo credit: BlackSoil

Founded by former Goldman Sachs executive Ajith Mohan Karimpana, Furlenco is a subscription-based furniture rental platform with features like free delivery within 72 hours, annual cleaning, a furniture-swap option, and free relocation.

Furlenco claims to have over 2 billion rupees (US$27.4 million) in assets under management and also said it has furnished more than 150,000 homes across eight major cities in India.

The startup has raised nearly US$51 million in equity funding from investors like Lightbox Ventures, Crescent Ventures, the family office of Indian actress Deepika Padukone, and Burman Family Holdings. It has also secured about US$45 million in debt funding from a network of high net worth individuals and financial institutions.

“The subscription model proved to be robust during the Covid-19 period, and it is our pleasure to partner with Furlenco to help them achieve the next level of growth,” said BlackSoil Group co-founder Ankur Bansal.

See also: Here comes a new (rental property marketplace) challenger

BlackSoil claims to have deployed 10 billion rupees (US$137.1 million) in the last four years across over 80 transactions into companies like Oyo, Spinny, Purplle, Zetwerks, Vogo, and TVF, among others.

Recently, BlackSoil Capital raised 320 million rupees (US$4.4 million) through non-convertible debentures to close a 1 billion rupee (US$13.6 million) fund.