The idea for HomeLane took shape not inside the interior design industry but during an unsatisfactory personal experience. Srikanth Iyer, now CEO and co-founder of the Bengaluru-based firm, had taken on a couple of apartment interior projects while working in the edtech sector at Pearson. The experience, including one project for his own home, left him dissatisfied.
“I was spending so much money but the experience was unpredictable. I wondered why, but never thought I would try to solve this problem,” he recalls.
The thought stayed with him. A couple of years later, while considering his next move, the problem resurfaced. The idea of building a company around making home interiors predictable began to take shape. That became HomeLane.
The entrepreneurial impulse
The entrepreneurial impulse itself had appeared earlier. Iyer graduated in computer science engineering from RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru, in 1992 and later completed a postgraduate diploma in software engineering from Harvard University’s Division of Continuing Education in 1993. During college, he says, academics and sports both shaped his approach to work and competition.
His first entrepreneurial step, however, was far more opportunistic. In 1993 he had joined Wipro with a monthly salary of Rs 4,500. But he soon noticed assembled computers being sold at reasonable margins. Selling 10–20 computers over a few months brought in more money than his salary. Within three months, he resigned. “That’s how my entrepreneurial journey started,” he says.
Years later, when he shared the HomeLane idea with friends and family, the reaction was mixed. Most of them did not associate him with interior design. But Iyer was clear about the distinction. He was not trying to become a designer. He wanted to build a business that addressed a structural problem in the sector.
Testing the idea
To test the idea, Iyer and his co-founders — Vivek Parasuram, Rama Harinath K, Prabhu Venkatesh and Srini Battula — conducted detailed customer research. They spoke with homeowners who had recently completed interior work.
The responses were strikingly consistent. “At least 99% of them were unhappy with the experience or the outcome,” Iyer says. Delays, cost overruns and lack of transparency were common complaints.
The insight pointed to a gap: customers were not only buying design but also reliability. What was less clear initially was whether they would pay a premium for predictability or accept a structured process.
The founders decided to build around that premise anyway. The concept that emerged focused on standardisation, technology integration and a clear timeline for delivery.
HomeLane was launched in mid-2014. The early operations were modest. The founding team worked out of a small portion of one of their homes in Bengaluru. The same house later hosted the company’s first showroom in Langford Town, about 1,500 sq ft and fewer than ten employees.
Three to four months after launch, the founders began raising capital. The first investors were Growth Story, Peak XV Partners and Aarin Capital, all of whom had previously backed the edtech startup where Iyer had worked. In February 2015, HomeLane raised Rs 27 crore in its Series A round.
Over the years the investor base expanded to include Accel, WestBridge Capital, Pidilite and cricketer MS Dhoni. The company has raised about Rs 1,000 crore so far.
The business itself has scaled gradually. In FY25, HomeLane reported revenue of Rs 756 crore, up from Rs 618 crore in FY24. The company expects to turn profitable in the fourth quarter of FY26 and achieve full-year profitability in FY27. It is targeting revenue of around Rs 1,100 crore in FY27.
The operating model has also evolved. One of the early milestones, Iyer says, was establishing product-market fit within the first two to three years, when customers across cities showed willingness to pay more for a structured interior solution.
The second was technology integration. It took about three years to develop Spacecraft, the company’s 3D design collaboration and manufacturing platform that allows customers to visualise their interiors and track progress. The system has been in place since 2017.
The third milestone was building an asset-light structure, combining outsourced manufacturing with a franchise-led expansion model.
The central proposition, however, has remained unchanged. HomeLane introduced a hard delivery commitment — 45 days to complete interiors, failing which the company pays the homeowner rent for each day of delay.
“That is a major commitment,” Iyer says. “If we don’t deliver in 45 days, we pay rent for every day of delay.”
Today the company operates close to 100 stores and five dedicated factories across the HomeLane and DesignCafe brands, the latter acquired in 2024. It has 67 live franchise studios and another 26 in the pipeline.
For Iyer, the promise of predictability, which is unusual in a sector known for delays, remains the core of the idea that started it all.