Driven by the section in Saudi’s Vision 2030 on increasing home-ownership, and its focus on digital transformation, India and South East Asia’s largest omni-channel home interior and renovation platform Livspace has announced its expansion in the Middle East through a strategic joint venture (JV) with Saudi’s Alsulaiman Group (ASG), Ikea’s operating partner in the region.
The JV saw the two parties invest $50 million to fuel regional growth and become market leaders in the home-renovation and design segment across multiple markets in MENA.
“As part of Saudi’s Vision 2030, there are huge developments in terms of the housing programme across the kingdom. The government is planning to build over a million houses in the next five years and are looking to increase home-ownership from around 40 percent to 70 percent by 2030,” Saud Alsulaiman, Alsulaiman Group CEO, told Arabian Business.
“This, along with the government’s push for digital transformation, is a huge opportunity to leverage. It hits the spot in terms of convenience for customers, transparency in pricing, higher quality in terms of delivery and also digital solutions with experience centres that really cater for the market and leverages on the demand of housing that is happening,” he continued.
Across the kingdom, 25,700 mortgage contracts were issued in April, and 38,285 mortgages were granted for purchasing villas and townhouses in the first quarter of 2021, with SAR48bn ($12.8bn) worth of residential mortgages for homes and land issued – both five-year highs.
Founded in 2015, Livspace operates across 25 cities in Singapore, Southeast Asia and India. The digital platform is launching close to a-city-a-month, according to its CEO and co-founder Anuj Srivastava.
Srivastava told Arabian Business that “business is expanding rapidly and with Alsulaiman Group’s partnership, we are entering the GCC market starting with Saudi Arabia where we see the largest opportunity in the region”.
Livspace uses its proprietary technology to provide a one-stop renovation solution for homeowners – from design to managed last-mile fulfillment for all rooms in a home. The platform has organised a fragmented industry, bringing together designers, brands, manufacturers and contractors to enable an ecommerce-like trusted and predictable experience.
Anuj Srivastava, CEO and co-founder of Livspace.
“We and ASG are methodical people and we know that the industries we operate in are tough to transform. Although the last 24 months have been hard on everybody, our silver lining is that the value chain has started to realise that partnering with large platforms is really the easiest way for them to stabilise their earnings and their ability to provide a good job to their customers,” said Srivastava.
“If you look across the GCC, it is very exciting because the governments have realised that technology will transform the country. I love the fact that there is a significant amount of investment coming in that space,” he continued.
The JV plans to invest in top talent across all levels, while also aiming to onboard over 1,000 design and home-improvement partners in the region by 2022.
It also aims to bring trusted home interiors and renovation solutions to homeowners, enable thousands of small and fragmented design and home improvement professionals to grow their business, and create the largest, most organised digital supply chain for the home interiors and renovation industry in the region.
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