Founder And CEO says that the company is targeting Rs 1,000 crore in revenue by 2030, driven by the belief that India’s furniture rental market has the potential to grow tenfold
Furniture rental platform Furlenco is betting that convenience, flexibility and changing urban lifestyles will redefine how Indians access and use furniture, as it looks to deepen its presence in an underpenetrated market. The company is targeting Rs 1,000 crore in revenue by 2030, driven by category expansion, wider distribution and a belief that India’s furniture rental market has the potential to grow tenfold, its top official said.
In an interview with BW Retail World, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ajith Karimpana emphasised that as part of that growth roadmap, Furlenco is targeting an initial public offering (IPO) within the next one to two years and aims to build a Rs 500-600 crore revenue base before listing. Karimpana said the company does not currently require fresh equity capital, and will instead focus on expanding through new categories, additional cities and a broader offline reach by leveraging investor Sheela Foam’s dealer network.
A 10x Growth Potential
India’s furniture rental market has “not scratched the surface yet,” as per Karimpana, who estimates the combined industry is currently generating about Rs 2,000 to 3,000 crore in revenue. “It has a potential to grow 10x,” he said, attributing the opportunity to expansion into more cities and newer product categories.
The founder argued that geographic expansion alone could drive the market five to six times higher. He said that organised rental brands have significant headroom beyond the metros as consumer acceptance spreads to smaller towns.
Category expansion, too, is central to Furlenco’s growth strategy. “We believe the entire kids furniture market is supposed to be rental,” Karimpana said, pointing to products such as cribs and bunk beds that have a limited usage cycle. He added that senior citizen care beds and hospital beds also represent emerging opportunities.
Karimpana also emphasised the changing housing patterns influencing demand. “The smaller the house gets, the more functional the products need to be,” he said, noting that multifunctional products such as storage beds and sofa-cum-beds are seeing strong traction, particularly in space-constrained markets like Mumbai. While cultural preferences vary across cities, he said, “Millennials and Gen Zs… all behave in one particular way,” with increasingly similar furniture preferences across India.
Convenience Over Ownership
Karimpana added that furniture rentals have evolved from being a cost-driven alternative to a convenience-led lifestyle choice. When Furlenco started over a decade back, he said, furniture was “not something you rent” because consumers simply did not have a viable alternative. Today, he argues, changing lifestyles have made convenience a far more important purchase driver than ownership.
Drawing a parallel with quick commerce, Karimpana said consumers have become increasingly willing to pay for convenience across categories. “People have started realizing that there is a huge value to convenience,” he said, adding that furniture rentals allow consumers to furnish a home quickly without making a large upfront investment or worrying about resale and relocation later. Furlenco currently serves nearly two lakh active subscriber homes, which he said reflects this behavioural shift.
Karimpana added that this convenience differentiates rentals from affordable furniture ownership models. “Rental offers not only cheap, but also convenience. Cheap product only offers cheapness. It does not offer convenience,” he said, arguing that rentals eliminate the hassles of moving, upgrading or disposing of furniture as consumers’ needs evolve.
Rather than viewing rentals and ownership as competing choices, Karimpana sees them serving different stages of life. “From age 22 till age 35… is the rental world,” he said, adding that consumers are more likely to buy furniture once they have settled into a permanent home. “When you feel settled, you should buy… If you do not want the hassle of dealing with it, you should rent.”
IPO Roadmap
Furlenco is aiming to go public within the next one to two years, with Karimpana saying the company is “definitely on that path.” He added that the earliest the company could hit the public markets would be in about a year.
Karimpana said Furlenco is not looking to raise fresh equity before listing. “We do not need money. We are printing money right now, bottom line,” he said, adding that while the company may continue to tap debt for expansion, it does not currently see a need for external equity capital.
On growth milestones, Karimpana said Furlenco has set an internal target of reaching Rs 500 to 600 crore in revenue before its IPO. Looking further ahead, he said the company is aiming to build a Rs 1,000 crore revenue business by 2030.
Doubling Down on Furniture
Furlenco is not looking to dilute its furniture-first identity despite expanding into adjacent categories. “We are primarily a furniture company, which happens to rent,” Karimpana said, adding that furniture contributes about 70 per cent of the company’s revenue, while appliances and electronics account for the remaining 30 per cent.
The company intends to maintain this mix going forward. “We purposely put it around the same… We as a company, as a philosophy, are more of a furniture company,” Karimpana said. While competitors have a larger share of appliances in their portfolio, he said Furlenco continues to prioritise furniture because it offers better long-term economics.
According to Karimpana, furniture remains a more attractive asset class as it has a longer lifecycle and stronger returns than appliances and electronics, which depreciate faster. “We are leaning towards a higher-margin product,” he said, adding that the company has no plans to materially alter its current revenue mix.
On expansion, Karimpana said adding a few more cities will be part of Furlenco’s growth strategy, but not the primary focus over the next year. Instead, the company plans to deepen its offline reach through investor Sheela Foam’s distribution network.
“They have about 5,000-plus dealers across India. We plan to enter at least 100 to 200 out of those 5,000,” Karimpana said. The company will showcase and rent its products through these dealer outlets, leveraging its strategic relationship with Sheela Foam as it looks to expand its footprint beyond its existing markets.
A Different Economics
Karimpana described furniture rentals as one of the more complex business models in retail, saying profitability depends on managing multiple variables beyond product sales. “This is a very, very, very complicated business,” he said, pointing out that unlike traditional retailers, rental companies recover the cost of an asset over time while also financing it through debt.
According to Karimpana, rental businesses incur additional costs that conventional furniture retailers do not face. “In our case, there is a 100 per cent return,” he said, explaining that every product must eventually be picked up, refurbished and redeployed before it reaches another customer, adding to logistics and operational expenses.
Beyond customer acquisition and delivery costs, Karimpana said asset utilisation remains one of the most critical metrics for the business. “It is ultimately a yielding business… It is not a get-the-margin kind of a business,” he said, adding that the economics depend on keeping assets in circulation while ensuring they generate enough returns to service financing and operating costs.
