OfficeBanao, an Indian startup that offers a workspace interiors platform to businesses in the country, has raised $6 million in seed funding led by Lightspeed.
In India’s competitive workspace interior design market, traditional providers have long dominated the landscape, with clients often requiring a significant investment of time and resources to achieve the desired results. In addition, many of these established companies mainly focus on large companies and offer only partial solutions, leading customers to seek help from third parties to fully furnish their new or existing office spaces. OfficeBanao challenges this status quo with its comprehensive, end-to-end service, which offers an interactive visual design process tailored for businesses of all sizes – from small and medium-sized enterprises to ambitious startups and established giants.
The Gurugram-based startup’s platform brings together architects, contractors, designers, material suppliers and even office furniture suppliers under one umbrella, streamlining the process for clients. The startup focuses on a broad range of commercial interiors, encompassing all stages of design, procurement and execution for projects ranging from modest $12,200 office spaces to sprawling $610,000 designs and more.
In addition, OfficeBanao uses newer technology to advance the interior design process for workspaces. By accelerating the fulfillment of design requirements and streamlining operations, the platform not only delivers greater efficiencies for customers, but also provides a seamless experience for service providers.
Traditionally, workspace interior providers have turned to tools such as AutoCAD, 3ds Max, and even Excel spreadsheets to manage their operations. OfficeBanao is trying it through a tech suite that takes the industry standard to the next level, the startup says. This suite includes an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that replaces the traditional use of spreadsheets, an innovative technology layer that integrates seamlessly with AutoCAD to provide customers with easy access, and a proprietary 3D solution that is able to an amazing 10,000 boardroom or meeting room options. seconds, said OfficeBanao co-founder and CEO Tushar Mittal in an interview.
Mittal co-founded OfficeBanao in January 2022 with Akshya Kumar (CTO) and Divyanshu Sharma (CBO and CPO) after years in the industry designing and building workspaces for multinational clients at real estate developer DLF and interior design firm SKV. The founders’ experience and knowledge of the market have helped give the startup a competitive edge over the competition, they say.
“There is huge demand… but the only problem is that it is not vertically integrated anywhere. So people go here and there and don’t get a one-stop solution,” he said while answering how OfficeBanao is different.
The level of transparency the startup offers to its customers and supply chain also makes it different from the other players in the market, he added.
OfficeBanao currently has customers in more than 15 cities, including some of the country’s untapped tier-2 cities. In the coming months, the startup aims to expand into the top 25 markets. It also uses platforms such as LinkedIn and Instagram to attract new customers in different markets.
The startup plans to leverage the seed funding and partnership from Lightspeed India Venture Partners to expand its workforce from the current 110 to 250-300 people by the end of the year to create a solid technology-driven foundation and better meet demand.
Mittal told businessroundups.org that OfficeBanao has revenue of about $5 million per quarter and is improving every quarter. The startup was all bootstrapped until now.
“OfficeBanao is a mission-driven company committed to making a meaningful difference in the way workplaces are developed in India. We are thrilled to be working with them and excited to see how they transform this market,” said Rahul Taneja, partner, Lightspeed, in a prepared statement.
“With deep experience and supplier network, the team is best placed to disrupt the existing opaque and subpar experience that plagues the industry today. It is encouraging to see the early progress, sustainable business model and most importantly the customer satisfaction they have delivered – and we look forward to their continued expansion.”
