Forbes India One CEO Club Ep 2: Growth strategies in a digital-first world
Forbes India One CEO Club members Vivek Gambhir, MD & CEO, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, Sandeep Kishore, CEO & MD, Zensar, and Ashish Goel, co-founder & CEO, Urban Ladder in conversation with Forbes India where they highlight how digital technologies are being adopted at their organisations and how it is changing the game for their businesses.
Publication: Forbes India
Date: January 16, 2020
Five crucial things Urban Ladder’s founder did in the year before launch
Does a degree from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) or Indian Institute of Management (IIM) set you up for startup success? Not always. Even in the world’s third-largest startup hub, 90% of such firms fail within the first five years. The country has produced less than 20 unicorns so far as compared with over 200 each in the US and China. Besides battling red tape, understanding and catering to India’s diverse consumers is a task.
Publication: Quartz
Date: December 17, 2019
How cost-effective is a sofa cum bed?
If you are constrained with a limited budget and you wanted to buy a sofa as well as a bed? You can go for an option named sofa cum bed. It is an item of furniture that seems very useful for us and it is easily available. They are simple to deal with in circumstances where an additional bed is required, and they are positively more preferable than using a couch to spend a night upon. You can get the same set of furniture from many online as well as offline stores. Urban Ladder furniture in Bangalore is a great choice to avail of a variety of designs of many furniture.
Publication: My MMA News
Date: December 15, 2019
Urban Ladder’s FY19 net profit at Rs 49.40 crore
Bengaluru-based furniture and home decor retailer Urban Ladder reported net profits of Rs 49.40 crore in the year to March 2019, according to the company’s RoC filings sourced from business intelligence platform Tofler. The company had posted losses of over Rs 100 crore in FY18. Revenue from operations jumped 209% to Rs 298.17 crore in FY19. Total expenses stood at Rs 382 crore during the period, the data showed. Urban Ladder, which started as an online marketplace, forayed into the brick-and-mortar space and currently has offline stores in Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai.
Publication : Financial Express
Date : November 19, 2019
Urban Ladder posts maiden profit in FY19, sales jumps nearly two-fold
In a major feat, online furniture retailer Urban Ladder has turned out profitable apart from posting healthy revenue growth. In the financial year ended March 31, 2019, eight-year old firm has posted Rs 49.4 crore in net profits, its first positive bottom-line since starting out. In FY18, the company had reported a loss of Rs 118.6 crore and a year before that Rs 458 crore. With this, Urban Ladder joins the league of select Indian startups such as Byju’s, PolicyBazaar, and OLX that are profitable on net basis. With investors now cautious of funding loss-making businesses, start-ups have also turned to focus on profitability and unit economics.
Publication : Business Standard
Date : November 19, 2019
Urban Ladder swings to profit despite management churn
Urban Ladder Home Decor Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which owns online furniture retailer Urban Ladder, turned profitable in 2018-19 despite a slew of challenges, including top level exits and its inability to raise more funds. The Bengaluru-based firm reported net profit of ₹49 crore in 2018-19, on a standalone basis. For fiscal 2018, it suffered a loss of ₹118.66 crore. Its revenue rose 187% from ₹151 crore in FY18 to ₹434 crore this fiscal, showed documents filed with the Registrar of Companies, and accessed by business intelligence platform Tofler.
Publication : Mint
Date : November 18, 2019
Buy chairs online- Add a dose of refreshing accent with floral chairs
An accent chair might be added to the room for its aesthetic appearance but definitely serves more than its purpose. The decor element of the chair gives you the option to disrupt the ongoing theme while also adding a beautiful contrast to it. An accent chair, if chosen thoughtfully also becomes a place for incredible comfort with it’s ample ergonomic space and great design. Placed in a reading nook or near a window, this chair would become your haven for relaxation.
Publication : The Times of India
Date : November 15, 2019
Urban Ladder secures Rs 15 cr funding from SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital & Steadview Capital
Troubled online furniture retailer Urban Ladder has raised about Rs15 crore in funding, led by existing investors SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital and Steadview Capital, regulatory filings show. Last month, the company said Rajiv Srivatsa was leaving, 8 years after cofounding Urban Ladder along with Ashish Goel. At the same time, Vani Kola, managing partner at Kalaari Capital, also stepped down from the board. The Bengaluru-based startup has found it tough to raise fresh capital amid layoffs and restructuring.
Publication : ET Retail
Date : November 05, 2019
Urban Ladder CEO owns a Kindle, but loves walking into bookstores, holding physical books
The world may be moving towards e-readers and e-books but Urban Ladder CEO Ashish Goel is still captivated by the paper version. “While I own a Kindle, I’m a little old school in my ways. I love walking into bookstores all around the world and holding a great book in my hands. No better feeling. So, a physical book is (still) my preference.”His favourite book – ‘Science: A History’ by John Gribbin – is one he tracked across stores in London. “It’s one of the books that have really stayed with me through the years.
Publication : The Economic Times
Date : November 02, 2019
Green shoots for Urban Ladder: reports first profitable months in 7 years
When Urban Ladder came into existence in 2012, it was one of the first organised online furniture retailers ready to shake up the $17 billion furniture market of which 90 percent is in the unorganized sector. Since then, the founders – Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa who were classmates at IIM-Bangalore, have seen a lot of highs and lows and seven years later, Urban Ladder is just beginning to see some green shoots, having turned profitable for the first time in June and July 2019.
Publication: The Hindu Business Line
Date: October 24, 2019