Ratan Tata's 3rd e-tail investment: Urban Ladder

Tata Group's Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata has invested in online furniture company Urban Ladder, making it his second personal investment in an e-commerce firm after Snapdeal. Urban Ladder said that Tata's "inputs and guidance will be very valuable" for the company, but did not disclose the amount and other details about this investment. This is Tata's second investment in Indian e-commerce business, after a previous investment he made in online marketplace major Snapdeal earlier in August this year.

“There is already enough being done in areas such as e-commerce, but in order to make it much more effective, more connected, at the group level we are connecting globally with the best - investing in start-ups so that we are able to leverage the latest technologies in the digital environment," says G Katragadda, CTO, Tata Sons.

"Similarly, in the factory floor excellence, to be able to optimise our factories again we are leaving no stone unturned.In addition to being able to reach out and get what we need , we are also putting on ground engineers and technologists to look at digital opportunities both within the company as well as we are putting resources on the ground within the group,” he adds.

The latest investment comes four months after Urban Ladder raised 'Series B funding' from Steadview Capital and existing investors SAIF Partners and Kalaari Capital. "Tata understands the furniture space very well, specially our focus on product design since he has a lot of knowledge of the subject. His inputs and guidance will be very valuable for us," Urban Ladder CEO and Co-founder Ashish Goel said. Launched in July 2012, Urban Ladder was co-founded by Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa. It offers over 1,000 products across 25 categories in furniture such as wardrobes, beds, sofas, dining tables and coffee tables. The firm aims to be the biggest furniture seller in India in the next 18 months.