Pepperfry, an online furniture and home goods company, announced the acquisition of Brandmakerr — a commercial interior solutions company — for an undisclosed sum on Wednesday.

With this alliance, Pepperfry will now foray into commercial fit-out projects in retail, banking and hotel, restaurants and beverage sectors. Rahul Kapuria, who founded Brandmakerr in 2014, has been appointed as vice president of the acquired entity andwill be based at Pepperfry corporate office in Mumbai.

Brandmakerr, a design and build and fit-out company, has presence in the retail and food and beverage sectors. The company has completed projects across 21 cities in India with clients like Amazon, Hamleys, TATA Starbucks, Dominos, KFC, Pizza Hut, Max, Raymonds and Shoppers Stop, among others.

Ashish Shah, co-founder and chief operating officer, Pepperfry, said, “This partnership with Brandmakerr opens an entirely new area of business for Pepperfry and I am excited to work closely with (Brandmakerr’s) Rahul (Kapuria) to scale this business to new heights by building in-house capabilities and executing commercial projects under the Pepperfry umbrella.”

Kapuria, vice president—commercial projects, Pepperfry said, “It gives me great delight to be associated with Pepperfry and assist the company in winning the commercial interior solutions opportunity. I am excited about the opportunities in front of us and look forward to leveraging our brand and capabilities to bring great spaces alive in the Indian Retail and F&B space.”

Brandmakerr’s client projects have commenced transition under Pepperfry. The company’s current prospect lies in associating with large players in the retail, F&B, airports and banking sector, company said in a statement.

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Competition in India’s furniture market is heating up with Swedish company IKEA also expanding its retail presence and now looking at smaller format stores in India. With Reliance acquiring Urban Ladder in 2020 for Rs 182 crore, and Pepperfry also mulling an initial public offering (IPO), the Indian furniture market is expected to see more business momentum.

According to some estimates, the India commercial furniture market is estimated to achieve a CAGR of 11.97% by 2023. South and north markets of the country see a maximum demand for furniture.

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According to Invest India—National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency, India is the fifth largest furniture producer at a global level and the fourth largest consumer of furniture. Indian furniture market was valued at $ 17.4 billion in FY21, and is predicted to reach $ 37.7 billion by 2026, growing at a double-digit CAGR of 13.37% during 2020-2026.

The size of the online furniture retail segment grew from $300 million in 2017 to $920 million in 2020 recording a CAGR of 32%. Indian furniture rental industry was estimated at $4.1 billion in 2020 and is forecasted to grow to $13 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 26%, the agency said.