Craftsvilla looks to turn profitable in next six months

Online ethnic fashion, food and home decor marketplace Craftsvilla.com plans to launch in-house branded products in 2017 and is looking to turn profitable in the next six months.
“We are considering launching our own in-house branded products next year in food, home decor and fashion,” Co-Founder, Craftsvilla, Manoj Gupta was quoted by PTI as saying.
According to a PTI report: The Sequoia Capital and Nexus Venture Partners backed ethnic store is targeting overall profitability by the end of the current fiscal, Gupta added.
“We are focused on becoming profitable in the next six months,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.
80 per cent of the company’s sales comes from ethnic fashion segment, while ethnic food and home decor contribute about 10 per cent each.
“We entered the ethnic food space in early 2016 through our acquisition of Place Of Origin, and also entered home decor segment. In the next three years, we aim to deepen these two categories to account for 25 per cent each of our sales, and ethnic fashion will contribute 50 per cent. We are looking at building Craftsvilla as a complete ethnic brand,” he was quoted by PTI as saying.
While the food business in India is a US$ 10 billion market, the handicrafts market is worth US$ 50 billion, according to industry estimates, and most of this is unorganised, he explained.
“There are currently no large brands in the ethnic space, and 98 per cent of the market is unorganized. We are keen on creating value and streamline this through our brand,” Gupta was quoted by PTI as saying.
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Craftsvilla is also looking to work with various State Governments to promote and market handicrafts, he said.
Launched in 2011, the company currently has 25,000 sellers and over 4 million products listed on its platform.
It serves over 20,000 pin codes in the country, and is looking at double sellers by March 2017 to increase sales volume, as it targets profitability, Gupta pointed out.
The company also acquired logistics enabler Sendd in February.
Craftsvilla has raised over US$ 50 million from private equity investors, including funding from Sequoia Capital, Nexus Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners.