Design Cafe to open 25 ‘experience centres’ in 12 cities by September

Chennai: Home interiors solutions company Design Cafe plans to open 25 experience centres in around 12 cities across India by September as part of its expansion strategy.

The company is a tech-enabled, modular home interiors brand led by architects and focused on providing ‘affordable designer homes’ personalised to the client’s budget, requirements, taste and style.

Design Cafe will look to expand its footprint into Tier II and Tier III cities this year. It currently has centres in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai.


"We will have centres in Thane, Navi Mumbai and Mysore in place by March 2022," Gita Ramanan, co-founder of Design Cafe, told ET. "We have a lot of interest from Lucknow, Surat, Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Vizag, Kochi and a whole bunch of places. We decided to start with Mysore, because it’s a lot closer to home, and see how it works.”

Design Cafe raised Rs 166 crore in its latest round of funding that was led by existing investor WestBridge Capital. The funding, which includes Rs 50 crore raised earlier as an extension of its Series B round, was to be used for expansion into new cities.

The company is also looking to partner with builders to create a new revenue stream. Ramanan said Design Cafe has spoken to several builders in Bengaluru who are interested to explore whether they could pitch this as a value-add to their customers.