Good interior design can make a mundane place look great. And this is what Design Cafe, a Bengaluru-based interior designing firm, has been doing for years. Co-founded in 2015 by the couple, Shezaan Bhojani and Gita Ramanan, the firm has a workforce of over 800 employees, designed 5000 homes across the country and featured in over 30 design publications across the world. So let’s go through the journey of this Bengaluru-based startup.
The Start
Shezaan and Gita both graduated from BMS School of Architecture, Bangalore, and this was the place where they first met. They not only become life partners but also work partners. They have known each other for almost 20 years and have been working together since passing out of college.
Their professional life started when they won the interior design project of an 800-apartment complex in a competition. Although they were not to entrepreneurship, the big achievement of the 800-apartment complex project changed their minds. They started the firm DesignInc. and went on to design over 500 projects across the country in various sectors including residential, commercial hospitality, and institutional design, and continued for the next 10 years, which helped them learn ins and outs of the business.
Birth of Design Cafe
The couple decided to build a brand in the Indian interior designing industry and transformed their existing business into Design Cafe in 2015 with their savings. And later investors, founder of Fireside Ventures and founder of Westbridge Capital, put their faith in Design Cafe, giving it the support needed to build a national brand for home interiors.
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What Next
Today, Design Cafe has a turnover of approximately Rs 120 crore every year. The company has four stores in three major cities; two in Bengaluru, one each in Mumbai and Hyderabad, and has a workforce of 800 people. The company also manufactures home interior products with materials sourced from top brands of the world in its 35,000 sq. ft. the manufacturing unit in Bengaluru. The company has won numerous awards, and the couple is looking to make Design Cafe the most trusted home interiors brand in India.
