Reliance Retail acquires e-furniture startup Urban Ladder; picks majority stake for e-commerce boost

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries’ retail arm Reliance Retail Ventures has acquired around 96 per cent stake in eight-year-old online furniture marketplace Urban Ladder for Rs 182.12 crore, according to a stock exchange filing. Urban Ladder was among a clutch of startups including Netmeds with which Reliance was in talks for acquiring stakes in the past few months. The acquisition would further amplify Ambani’s e-commerce initiative JioMart that is perceived as a potent competitor to current e-commerce incumbents Jeff Bezos’ Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart. Selling furniture online would also pit it against Goldman Sachs-backed vertical player Pepperfry. Urban Ladder would “further enable the group’s digital and new commerce initiatives and widen the bouquet of consumer products provided by the group,” the filing read.