Livspace to invest USD 30 million to disrupt Indian modular industry with Neo
Mumbai: Livspace, India and Southeast Asia’s largest home interiors and renovation platform, today announced an investment of USD 30 million to scale Neo, its proprietary design-to-manufacturing-to-installation platform that has disrupted the modular industry in India.
The funds will be utilized towards further development of the technology and launching multiple private labels in the modular solutions space across 30 markets in India and in Southeast Asia. Each private label will be designed to meet a different functional, aesthetic, or price point needs of customers such as space-saving, bespoke, express-installation, economical, stainless steel, etc.
Furthermore, the company plans to onboard over 2500 ecosystem partners, including franchisees, OEMs, modular furniture, kitchen and wardrobe brands, contract manufacturers, modular furniture retailers, designers, and installers on the platform in the next 9 months.
Modular solutions such as kitchens and wardrobes are a combination of hundreds of pre-designed modular components and services, with each solution created uniquely for the homeowner and their home.
The Indian modular industry has long struggled with providing this personalization at scale, while also ensuring accuracy, quality, and timelines. Neo by Livspace has successfully solved this problem by using technology to integrate all the steps—from design, order creation, manufacturing to installation—on one integrated platform.
Neo digitally connects not just all human participants (designers, factory staff, installers, etc.) but every machine in the value chain (manufacturing, logistics, warehousing) is automated and governed centrally. This ensures a seamless flow of information and instructions and technology-driven optimizations at every step, leading to a personalized solution delivered predictably for all customers.
The platform is a game-changer for the country and also holds the potential to disrupt the wider $50 billion modular furniture industry across India, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Middle-east.
Since its company-wide launch towards the end of 2019, Neo has unlocked benefits for all participants of the ecosystem. In the early pilot, while both designer and installer productivity has doubled, utilization for the onboarded Livspace manufacturing partners has nearly tripled (from ~25-30% to 80%) leading to higher profits. Raw material suppliers, too, enjoy a steady and greater inflow of business and ease of digitally managing logistics.
For modular brands, Neo enables seamless integration of their existing offline catalogs into the digital modular solution created by designers. For Livspace, Neo has created an infrastructure where multiple private label brands will be launched at record speed and in a unit economics efficient way.
