Latest news with #NorwestVenturePartners
Entrepreneur
17 hours ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Pepperfry Raises INR 43.3 Cr to Fuel Growth and Expansion
The fresh funding round was led by General Electric Pension Trust, alongside existing investors Norwest Venture Partners and Panthera Growth Partners. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Omnichannel furniture retailer Pepperfry has raised INR 43.3 crore (approximately USD 5.1 million) in a fresh funding round led by General Electric Pension Trust, alongside existing investors Norwest Venture Partners and Panthera Growth Partners. According to filings sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC), General Electric Pension Trust invested the largest sum of INR 21.5 crore, followed by INR 8.52 crore from Norwest Venture Partners and INR 6.45 crore from Panthera. The Pepperfry board approved the issuance of 5,59,463 compulsory convertible preference shares at INR 775 each, raising funds on a private placement basis. The company stated the funds will be deployed "for the growth, expansion and general corporate activities of the Company." Founded in January 2012 by Ambareesh Murty and Ashish Shah, Pepperfry has become one of India's most recognised names in the online and offline furniture space. Headquartered in Mumbai, the company operates as a marketplace offering a wide selection of furniture and home décor products—ranging from sofas and beds to lighting, appliances, carpets, and outdoor essentials. Pepperfry uses an omnichannel strategy, combining a robust e-commerce platform with over 200 Studio Pepperfry experience centers across 100+ cities. It also works on a franchise model and collaborates with major brands like Godrej, Springfit, and Spacewood, listing more than 10,000 products on its platform. Valued at INR 3,120 crore (USD 367 million) post-allotment, Pepperfry competes with key players like Urban Ladder, and WoodenStreet. The company generates revenue primarily through commissions on product sales. This latest funding round comes amid efforts to tighten financial controls. Despite a 30.6% drop in FY24 revenue to INR 188.98 crore, Pepperfry managed to cut losses by 37%, down to INR 117.4 crore from INR 187.6 crore in the previous year. In a leadership update, co-founder Ashish Shah was elevated to CEO in 2023, and Madhusudan Bihani was appointed CFO a year later. "We remain committed to redefining the furniture-buying experience in India," said Shah, "and this investment gives us the fuel to accelerate our mission."
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
Furniture retailer Pepperfry raises Rs 43 crore from existing investors
Omnichannel furniture and home goods company Pepperfry has raised Rs 43.3 crore from existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, General Electric Pension Trust, Growth Equity Opportunity Fund, and Panthera Growth Partners, among others. General Electric Pension Trust led the round with an investment of Rs 21.5 crore, followed by Norwest Venture Partners with Rs 8.5 crore and Panthera with Rs 6.4 crore. The remainder was contributed by other investors, according to the company's filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The company issued around 5.6 lakh compulsorily convertible preference shares with a face value of Rs 775 each on a private placement basis. In its last funding round, the Mumbai-based company had raised $23 million in 2022 from the same group of investors. Prior to that, it had secured $45 million in debt funding in 2021. News website Entrackr first reported the latest development. Pepperfry had postponed its planned initial public offering (IPO) last year after engaging with bankers, as it was focusing on growth and profitability, cofounder Ashish Shah had told ET in an earlier interaction. The company, founded in 2012, had converted into a public entity in 2022 as part of its IPO preparations, which aimed to raise $250–300 million. In FY24, Pepperfry reported a 30.6 per cent year-on-year decline in operating revenue to Rs 188.9 crore. However, it narrowed its losses by 37.4 per cent to Rs 117.4 crore, from Rs 187.6 crore in the previous year. The company competes with ecommerce platforms such as Amazon India and Flipkart, as well as Reliance-owned Urban Ladder, and generates most of its revenue through commissions on product sales. Pepperfry has also been expanding its home décor segment and has onboarded multiple direct-to-consumer brands to strengthen its portfolio.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Furniture retailer Pepperfry raises Rs 43 crore from existing investors
Omnichannel furniture and home goods company Pepperfry has raised Rs 43.3 crore from existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, General Electric Pension Trust, Growth Equity Opportunity Fund, and Panthera Growth Partners, among others. General Electric Pension Trust led the round with an investment of Rs 21.5 crore, followed by Norwest Venture Partners with Rs 8.5 crore and Panthera with Rs 6.4 crore. The remainder was contributed by other investors, according to the company's filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The company issued around 5.6 lakh compulsorily convertible preference shares with a face value of Rs 775 each on a private placement basis. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now In its last funding round, the Mumbai-based company had raised $23 million in 2022 from the same group of investors. Prior to that, it had secured $45 million in debt funding in 2021. News website Entrackr first reported the latest development. Live Events Pepperfry had postponed its planned initial public offering (IPO) last year after engaging with bankers, as it was focusing on growth and profitability, cofounder Ashish Shah had told ET in an earlier interaction. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories The company, founded in 2012, had converted into a public entity in 2022 as part of its IPO preparations, which aimed to raise $250–300 million. In FY24, Pepperfry reported a 30.6% year-on-year decline in operating revenue to Rs 188.9 crore. However, it narrowed its losses by 37.4% to Rs 117.4 crore, from Rs 187.6 crore in the previous year. The company competes with ecommerce platforms such as Amazon India and Flipkart, as well as Reliance-owned Urban Ladder, and generates most of its revenue through commissions on product sales. Pepperfry has also been expanding its home décor segment and has onboarded multiple direct-to-consumer brands to strengthen its portfolio.
TechCrunch
20-05-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Alation acquires Numbers Station to bolster its AI agent offerings
Enterprise data intelligence platform Alation acquired Numbers Station to help give its customers access to AI agents that run on top of their structured data. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Numbers Station, which builds AI-native data applications, is a Series A-stage startup that's raised more than $17 million in venture capital from firms including Norwest Venture Partners, Madrona and Factory, among others. Alation plans to integrate Numbers Station's products into its own as soon as the end of this quarter, Alation co-founder and CEO Satyen Sangani told TechCrunch. 'One of the things that gave us a lot of confidence is the [companies] are architected in such a fundamentally complementary way that we could get the integration done really fast,' he said. Data and knowledge consumption is increasingly happening through large language models, Sangani said, but the fact that LLMs are prone to hallucinate means that enterprise haven't yet been able to meaningfully adopt AI data tools. Sangani said that his company's next stage of data management had to include a translation layer that sits between the LLMs and an enterprise's data. Numbers Station was a natural choice to provide that layer, Sangani said, because it already builds AI agents that work on structured data. The fact that Venky Ganti, a former co-founder at Alation, worked at Numbers Station for a handful of years didn't hurt, either. '[The] ability to basically make LLMs have the ability to talk to the core databases that fuel and run the enterprise, we think is basically the problem to solve to make LLMs scale inside of the enterprise,' Sangani said. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW Alation started to build its own AI agents last year, Sangani said, including one for data quality and one for documentation that the company expects to release this quarter. But acquiring a company like Numbers Station allows Alation to offer workflow automations faster. 'What we bring to bear is all of the metadata and all the context around the data and this massive, gnarly library of connectors and all of this enterprise knowledge,' Sangani said. 'And what they bring to bear is the ability to bring these LLMs, and take their cutting-edge technologies, and operate on that data.' Alation was founded in 2012 and currently works with more than 600 enterprise customers including Nasdaq, Hertz, and Samsung, among others. The company has raised more than $300 million in venture funding from firms including General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, and Sapphire Ventures. The company was last valued at $1.7 billion in 2022.
NBC Sports
07-05-2025
- Business
- NBC Sports
Ryan Murphy soaks in life changes while keeping his feel for the water
Nine-time Olympic medalist Ryan Murphy has a lot on his plate these days. That still includes swimming, just in a different capacity than he's used to. Murphy, 29, has taken a break from competition since the Paris Games, where he earned a medal of every color for a second consecutive Olympics. He still plans to bid for a fourth Olympic team in 2028, and could return to racing as early as 2026. 'There's always a trade-off,' said Murphy, who swam at every major international meet from 2014 through 2024. 'These competitions are awesome, and they're a lot of fun. But this is a time where I really want to be present in my personal life.' Murphy and wife Bridget welcomed their first child , daughter Eevi, on Jan. 24. Her name is Finnish. Bridget's dad is from Finland. 'I feel bad when I'm talking to other parents because she's actually such a chill little baby,' Murphy said. 'She's been sleeping well. She's been eating well. She seems happy. She's smiling a lot. So life is good.' Later in the winter, Murphy began working as an investor with Norwest Venture Partners on their growth equity team. He goes into Bay Area offices four days a week. 'I know what I want to do post-swimming,' said Murphy, who owns a degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley. 'So this is a great opportunity to lean in there and kind of start getting some reps.' With all his life changes since the Olympics — including opening a Goldfish Swim School in his native Northeast Florida in October — Murphy is still working out seven times a week (three times in the pool), just not at the Olympic level for the moment. 'I'm trying to stay in good enough shape that when I go back to swimming full-time, I can kind of try to hit the ground running, and I'm not starting from zero,' he said. Murphy and longtime coach Dave Durden met last September to review the 2024 Olympic season and start mapping out the 2028 Olympic cycle. They're excited about the addition of the 50m backstroke to the Olympic program and the potential to mix up training to possibly attack all three distances: 50m, 100m and 200m backstrokes. In the past, seven of Murphy's nine swimming workouts per week were geared toward the 200m. 'The intensity is going to start to ramp up in 2026,' said Murphy, who swept the Olympic 100m and 200m back golds in 2016. 'I don't think we've totally locked in whether there's a full competition schedule in 2026. I feel like that's kind of an open negotiation. I think from the training side and from the preparedness side, I think I'll be ready to go in 2026. But if that's competing or not, I haven't fully made a decision on that.' Murphy, who turns 30 on July 2, can join his old rivals in extending backstroke success that deep into a career. Matt Grevers swam at three World Championships in his 30s, collecting nine medals from 2015-19. David Plummer made his Olympic debut at age 30, taking 100m back bronze in 2016 and joining the 21-year-old gold medalist Murphy on the podium. 'As a competitor, it's hard for me to be like, I'm going to hold back in this year, and not try to compete at a nationals (June 3-7) and a world championships,' Murphy said. 'Because, when I'm in training, that's kind of where my head starts going, but I have to be intentional with how I approach these four years. If I was going absolutely full throttle for the four years, I don't think that would be good for me in 2028. Ultimately, number one goal is trying to impact the podium in 2028 and then working backwards from that.'
