Bengaluru based furniture rental Furlenco lays off 180 employees to cut losses

The layoffs come on the back of the company scaling down operations across various metro and non-metro cities including Pune, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.

Furlenco, a furniture and lifestyle rental brand, recently laid off 180 to 200 employees as the company scales down its operations in cities such as Pune, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad. Meanwhile, Furlenco has outsourced functions such as asset management, including repair and maintenance, and asset collection for returns.

Furlenco has also verified the news. Following the layoffs, the firm now employs 350 people. Furlenco claims that it has only temporarily halted operations in Kolkata, Mysuru, Chandigarh, and Jaipur as it seeks a lease model for its warehouses in order to save money.

The company has suspended operations across Kolkata, and other cities…these were places it was looking to aggressively scale earlier…They have laid off close to 200-220 employees this year..,” a source aware of the developments told the publication.

“What is surprising is that the company was ramping up its hiring last year and then suddenly decided to retrench employees…This has caused uncertainty in the company. The current employees were informed of the layoffs in a town hall by the top management.” 

According to the persons described above, it has also outsourced responsibilities such as asset management, including repair and maintenance, as well as asset collection for returns, to third-party parties.

The Bengaluru-based business has received funding from companies such as UAE-based CE-Ventures, Zinnia Global Fund, Lightbox, and Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, among others. Since its inception in 2012 by former Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley employee Ajith Mohan Karimpana, the rental business has raised $60 million. It competes with companies such as Rentomojo and Cityfurnish.

Last July, the ten-year-old company received $140 million (Rs 1,000 crore) in debt and equity headed by Zinnia Global Fund.

“The decision is a part of a larger cost restructuring exercise to focus on creating an asset-light model. We hired close to 200 people last year, with almost 150 of them being across customer engagement functions. Another 35 members were added to technology functions. These hirings were made to cater towards increased customer demand,” Ajith Karimpana, founder and chief executive officer of Furlenco, told the publication.