Nearly 8 years ago, Ajith Karimpana realised something that changed his life: The Karimpana family was moving back to India. Having given all their furniture away, they were left with the task of trying to set up a home from scratch. Not an easy task. Furnishing a home has always been arduous. Furniture is hard to find, expensive and, in India especially, has to be custom-made most of the time.

Ajith could not stop thinking about it. And finally decided to do something about it. Despite having zero experience in the furniture business, he quit his job and founded a furniture company dedicated to making it easy to transform a house into a home. He called it Furlenco.

Since then, Furlelco has gone on to achieve great success building India’s largest furniture subscription business. More importantly, they have become the furniture subscription company.

And now, Furlenco has announced one of the largest debt raises in the startup ecosystem along with an equity raise which we participated in once again. This is the 6th time in 6 years we have invested in Furlenco. We invested for the first time in 2015, and I explained our rationale at the time here: https://lightbox.vc/new-thinking/don-t-buy-it-furlenco-it

But, let me explain why we continue to invest in the company. In one word, it’s circularity.

Furlenco is leading the charge for a circular future. The company is the very definition of how an organization can create value for its shareholders while minimizing ecological impact and social costs.  Over $60 MM annualized worth of assets were refurnished and $72 MM of those were shipped to new customers in July 2021. This number is growing 40-45% MoM. Add to this the fact that every time a customer rents from Furlenco, our planet saves 4 trees. In August 2021 alone, we will be furnishing 7400 new homes, that’s about 30,000 trees in a month.

Most companies follow a linear business model. Which basically means: take natural resources, make products for consumers, and allow those products to eventually become waste.

Furlenco, on the other hand, creates products that can be upcycled, repurposed, and reused over and over again for eternity. Their circular strategy aims at rethinking everything around them, from their business model, to their products, and eventually to mindsets (both internally and for their customers).

For example, take design. Everything starts with design. The key principle of circular design is reducing pollution and putting waste to good use. In order to do that, each product needs to be used longer. Furlenco builds long lasting and easy to repair products.

Another great example is refurbishment. Furlenco runs some of the country’s largest refurbishment centers. These renewal and restoring procedures allow them to put a product back to its original condition or in many cases even modernize them. With remanufacturing processes on board, Furlenco reduces materials and energy consumption, compared to the original production. And believe it or not, this actually increases their margins.

And finally, recycling. Everything in Furlenco’s operation doesn't get refurbished, and when it doesn’t, they make tremendous effort to reuse it. All their packaging material has been designed for this very purpose - reuse and reapply. By spending a little more money on packaging, materials like papers, plastics, and rubber are given eternal life, allowing savings on energy and even money in the long term, but, most importantly, reducing exposure to the environment.

Furlenco isn’t perfect. But their desire to achieve a perfect circular economy makes us proud to be a small part of their incredible journey .