Asia-based omnichannel home interior and renovation tech platform Livspace is making its GCC entry, starting with Saudi Arabia, according to a recent statement.
Livspace offers a tech-enabled platform that brings together homeowners, design professionals, vendors and brands. The India and Southeast Asia-focused company will now be bringing its platform to the GCC market, looking to connect contractors, designers and home improvement professionals to customers digitally.
The company has secured a joint venture partnership with Saudi’s Alsulaiman Group, with investments of about USD 50 million, the statement said. Alsulaiman Group is a retail and retail-related services group. Its business activities are spread across omnichannel retail, e-commerce and home services, and retail real estate.
Livspace is expecting to launch its services in Saudi Arabia by H1 next year. It is also looking to onboard 500 design partners from across the GCC by 2022.
Livspace will enable Alsulaiman Group to “expand the customer journey”
The joint venture comes at a time when Alsulaiman Group is expanding its products and services through investments and partnerships with companies and startups.
Meanwhile, it has actively been managing IKEA in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Flow Progressive Logistics, and Ehteraf real estate development. It has also made a “major investment” in Salasa, an e-commerce fulfilment company.
Saud Alsulaiman, CEO of Alsulaiman Group, noted that the joint venture with Livspace would allow the company to “expand the customer journey” from design to execution. Livspace counts IKEA as one of its investors.
“The companies of Alsulaiman Group – IKEA, Flow, Ehteraf, Salasa and other emerging investments – will continue to grow as an integrated ecosystem to enhance customers' lives through better experiences whether they access to our products and solutions online or through stores,” Alsulaiman also said.
Livspace also offers mobile app solutions, retail applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and virtual reality offerings for home development.
The startup was founded in 2014 by Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma and is headquartered in Singapore. It has been on an expansion spree, making 60 new market entries across the Asia Pacific region.
Since its launch, Livspace has been able to deliver over 100,000 rooms, with more than 7.5 million SKUs sold on the platform.
The company has raised well over USD 200 million in funding, with investors such as TPG Growth, Goldman Sachs, Kharis Capital, Venturi Partners, FFP, EDBI, Bessemer, Jungle Ventures, Helion Ventures and UC-RNT.