Building Unicorns Podcast | Competition from IKEA is good for building organised market: PepperFry

This edition of the Building Unicorns Podcast focuses on startups that are heading towards becoming unicorns. And today, we connect with online furniture firm Pepperfry.

Launched in 2012 as a lifestyle e-commerce marketplace, Pepperfry, within a year took a decision to move out of other categories and focus solely on the home and furniture sector.

The company says it has shipped more than 7 million furniture and home items, so far. They have 70 plus experiential studios spread across four plus cities, which contribute over 30 percent to the overall revenue.

CNBC-TV18's Mugdha Variyar talks to Pepperfry’s co-founder and COO Ashish Shah, about their journey over the last 10 years and the plans going forward.

Shah said the company will become profitable later this year and will head for an IPO in 12-18 months.

As IKEA expands aggressively in more markets, the PepperFry team remains unfazed. In fact, Shah said the competition will help in more customers buying branded furniture over unbranded, and that will expand the organised sector for the furniture business.