Refurbished furniture marketplace GoZefo expands to Delhi-NCR

BENGALURU: GoZefo.com has launched its services in Delhi NCR, six months after starting and aggressively expanding in Bangalore.

The city launch comes in at a time when the Bengaluru based startup has fulfilled orders for more than 5000 customers, delivering 8000 pieces of furniture and helping customers save over Rs 4 crore.

"After an overwhelming response from Bengaluru, we have expanded our services to the national capital,” said Himesh Joshi, 28, a former Boston Consulting Group consultant, who cofounded Zefo with RohitRamasubramanian and Karan Gupta -- all Indian Institute of Technology graduates -- and Arjit Gupta from the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad.

GoZefo.com is a used and factory seconds furniture marketplace, which promises verified photographs and detailed assessments of each item listed on its platform, including any defects.

What clinches the deal for customers is the company's promise to buy back the furniture at a guaranteed price, if the buyer ever wants to sell. Zefo promises its customer 70 per cent of the buying price within six months and 60 per cent of the buying price for 6 to 12 months of usage.

“We take away the pain of transacting (on the current classified platforms) by physically inspecting and cataloguing every product and managing in-between logistics,” Joshi added.

The company quality checks every product individually, and clean, disinfect (with organic chemicals) and polish them to ensure that the products are in excellent condition.

“The lifetime and durability of furniture is very long and over time, buying used furniture turns out cheaper and better than renting,” said Ramakant Sharma, a partner at private equity firm Jungle Ventures.

Globally, online buyers and sellers of used furniture have seen some recent traction. Move Loot, launched in 2014 in the US, has raised $15 million from investors including YCombinator, Google Ventures and IDG and is rapidly expanding. Other players include Chairish, Viyet and Aptdeco.