Anjali, a Mysuru-based doctor, was excited yet overwhelmed — her long-cherished dream home was finally materialising after months of gruelling construction work and endless conversations with contractors to ensure everything would turn out just right. But the last piece of the puzzle was yet to fall in place: the interior decoration.
Her first choice was a well-known retail chain, but she found herself struggling to strike the right balance between quality, variety, and affordability. After more store visits and hours of online browsing, she finally found what she was looking for — on the Instagram page of a home décor startup.
Nestasia, DecorTwist, Vaaree, HomeLane, and Urban Space are among a host of new-age home décor ventures that have caught the fancy of today’s increasingly digital-first shopper. “The products feel premium and thoughtful,” says Vatsala, a Delhi-based professional, who describes these platforms as a convenient lifesaver, especially for last-minute gifting.
As more new homes get built and older homes are refurbished, Indians spent nearly $17.2 billion on home décor in 2024, and this is expected to reach $27.6 billion by 2030, according to market research and consulting company Grand View Research. However, the Indian market is very different from the European one,” notes Pooja Grover, Country Expansion Manager at IKEA India. “Larger family sizes, the emphasis on value-for-money, and diverse spending capacity all influence purchasing behaviour here.”
And yet, despite being fragmented and unorganised, the Indian home décor market is attracting investors such as Stellaris Venture Partners (which has funded Nestasia), as they see an opportunity to build organised, brand-driven platforms in this space. “The demographics are favourable. The number of new homes being constructed is rising, and that’s translating into demand,” says Rahul Chowdhri, Partner at Stellaris.
Since 2019, the home décor startup segment has raised $36 million funding, according to market intelligence platform Tracxn. In 2024 alone, the sector raised $14.2 million, up by a massive 548% from 2023, Tracxn data shows.
Easing pain points
For most founders in this space, their venture stemmed from a personal pain point — the finding that aesthetic home décor was largely confined to luxury offline stores. Moreover, they saw a need for a single destination offering a complete range of products to decorate a home end-to-end.
Nestasia, co-founded in 2019 by Aditi Murarka and Anurag Agrawal, operates in the kitchen, dining, décor, accessories, and bath segments in a slightly premium category. “India is ready to pay a slight premium for something that looks good,” reasons Agrawal. Kitchen and dining segments account for 50–70 per cent of Nestasia’s sales, followed by décor (15–20 per cent). We aspire to be the brand which has the most purchase per year per user, Agrawal says.
Pooja essentials, kitchenware, and organisers are in focus at DecorTwist, co-founded by Anupam Rajey, and Nidhi Bajpai. “We saw a clear gap in the market. Most quality décor was either too expensive or generic. Our goal was to strike the right balance between affordability and design,” says Rajey.
Vaaree, founded in 2022, boasts over 80,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) across 150 categories — from bedsheets to mats, curtains and wallpaper. “In India today, lifestyle upgrades follow a natural sequence — first food, then fashion, and, finally, the home,” says Varun Vohra, co-founder of Vaaree.
Rohit Agarwal, co-founder and business head, Urban Space, strikes a similar note: “India has an aspirational population. There’s a deep desire to build beautiful, functional homes — once restricted to the top 5 per cent, it is now a priority for many.” Urban Space sells bed covers, rugs, and curtains.
Supply chains
From sourcing to production, the supply chain is complex for the home décor business. DecorTwist works with 15 third-party manufacturers and imports some items from China, says Rajey.
Nestasia uses a mix of contract and in-house manufacturing, as also white-labelling; of its nearly 5,000 SKUs, 35–50 per cent are designed in-house. It has a manufacturing facility in Kolkata and plans to set up a metal unit in Maharashtra within two months.
Vaaree currently operates dark stores in four cities and plans to add two more within three months, says Vohra. At Urban Space, around 70 per cent of the products are manufactured in-house, and the rest outsourced from partners across India.
Apart from China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines have remained popular sources for home décor supplies. Startups in India are trying to move away from imports. As Agrawal explains, “Small quantity manufacturing in India is challenging, but large-scale is possible. Most of our metal lines are now almost exclusively made in India.”
Challenges
Apart from the struggle of competing against established brands and furniture rental platforms, home décor platforms grapple with margin pressures in a price-sensitive market with a high level of product commoditisation, says Neha Singh, co-founder of Tracxn.
“The biggest challenge is in supply chain standardisation and aligning variety with consistent brand experience,” Agrawal adds. “The consumer wants choice, but bringing all of that under one brand while ensuring scale and profitability is the real test.” Managing supply chains across a diverse product range is difficult, especially when involving fragile items and high logistics costs, he says. “Every material — whether wood, fabric, metal, ceramic, or glass — comes from a different region and needs different skill sets and processes,” he explains.
Road ahead
Investor sentiment in the home and lifestyle space has warmed considerably, especially with hybrid workspaces gaining ground post the pandemic. As consumers appear more open to investing time and money on upgrading their living spaces, founders in this sector believe the shift is long-term and aligned with broader aspirations. “These are universal needs. We believe India will see at least 10 category-defining brands in every vertical, including home,” Agarwal says.