On the other side, it also leverages the local players to get exposed to new customers
Shailesh Goswami
Hyderabad: There have been many a times that you have bought a new home but could not afford an interior designer and had to end up for the regular designing for your house.
Trying to tap into this market space, where almost 80 per cent of middle class cannot afford a designer is Foyr, an online home decor solutions start-up.
Claiming to be the world’s first online interior designer, Foyr.com was started by Shailesh Goswami, an alumnus of IIT-Delhi and former senior director at Microsoft, in 2014, and aims to help a customer design a home swiftly using technology solutions.
Previously known as Renderology, a technology-backed business-to-business (B2B), Foyr a business-to-consumer (B2C) launched its operations in 2015 from Hyderabad. So, how did the idea come about? “ My wife is an interior designer and for long we have seen that most of the people who buy a house have many unsolved questions in mind, starting from things like how do I customise my house? What is a good look? Where can I find it? Can I get it under a certain quality?
In order to address these issues, we started off with Foyr. The website uses 3D technology, augmented reality and various other technologies for users to experiment with various patterns, colours, textures to actually get a feel of the furniture in the specified room,” Shailesh explains.
With a lot of online home decor players thronging the cyber space and the market estimated to be around $26 billion, what differentiates Foyer? Pat comes the reply from Shailesh, “We are India’s first local marketplace for home decor. We connect customers to local furniture shops, which have been in existence for a long time. These shops are trusted by consumers and they also have the privilege to touch and feel the furniture they want to buy.
On the other side, it also leverages the local players to get exposed to new customers. Our research also found that although many are online, but only one per cent actually buy furniture online and this is our target audience.”
The company, which is mostly technology-enabled, has also filed three patents for processes in space of 3D, virtual and augmented reality and compression technology developed by its design and technology teams, he said. Foyr has received Rs 11 crore of funding so far from Brick Eagle and Astrac Ventures and has used it for technology innovation and plans to enter Pune and Bengaluru by October.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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