BathStory is solving the hassle-prone, cumbersome process of interior design & bathroom renovation using technology.
The design-tech startup that focuses on bathroom interiors & renovation has raised $100K in an angel funding round.
New Delhi: BathStory, a design-tech startup that focuses on bathroom interiors & renovation, has raised $100K in an angel funding round. The angel investors include Balboa ventures, the Investment arm of Ajith Mohan Karimpana, CEO of House of Kieraya; Laxman Vaidya, principal at Symphony Asia Singapore and Vaibhav Laddha, Ex CFO at House of Kieraya.
The capital raised from this angel round will be used to invest in technology and build the company’s operational infrastructure to support its growth plan.
In India, the home interiors market is vast, about $25bn today, highly fragmented, and significantly under-penetrated by any prominent organised player. And when it comes to a niche like a bathroom renovation, the penetration is much worse or even non-existent, despite the bathroom renovation market size being as much as 30% of the home interior market.
Over the next year, the company intends to design & renovate over 300 bathrooms. The company started operations at the beginning of this year in January 2022 and is already seeing excellent traction, especially for a startup just a couple of months old. The company has handed over 40 bathrooms worth ~₹1 Cr until June 2022. All this with minimal marketing spending and a very small team.
BathStory was founded by Aadil Merchant, a Chartered Accountant with about 11 years of experience in finance & strategy. Prior to this, he was heading Corporate finance for a furniture rental startup, i.e. Furlenco, now House of Kieraya.
Aadil is accompanied by Archana, an Architect & a designer with over 7 years of experience. Prior to this, she ran her boutique design firm and successfully delivered projects greater than ₹100 Cr. Archana has won multiple awards & international accolades for her work & contribution to the field of architecture.
“Today, the bathroom is not just a utility area, but it’s a space that is as important as the living room & the bedroom. Post-COVID, the home improvement sector has seen substantial growth, as people are spending more time at home and are now more invested in making it a beautiful one. And this for us is a huge opportunity,” said Aadil Merchant, founder & CEO of BathStory.
“The Indian consumer today has become a lot more design conscious. Earlier, people didn’t care about the bathroom beyond its basic functionalities, but today, the bathroom is becoming the ultimate place where people want to unwind and rejuvenate. Even the concept of powder rooms, his and her bathrooms are slowly coming into the Indian market, making our work in this niche fascinating,” said Archana, Design lead at BathStory.
India has 250 mn homes, and out of them, approximately 10% have concrete walls, concrete ceilings and tiled floors which is the target market for this business. With an average life of a bathroom of 10 years and 1.5 bathrooms per home, there is a need to renovate over ~4 million bathrooms every year.
