Pepperfry, a furniture and home goods marketplace, announced the elevation of Kushal Budhia as the Head of Furniture Business. He joined Pepperfry in 2021 as the Head of Corporate Strategy where he led the Financial planning and analysis and Corp Dev activities for the company.
In his new role, Budhia will be responsible for scaling Pepperfry’s D2C private labels and expanding the marketplace. With his prior experience in the Strategy domain, he will aim to drive the medium and long term growth plans of the organization and build a sustainable profitable business.
Budhia will also be delving into key developmental areas of furniture business such as brand building, expanding merchant partnerships, new product development, strengthening sourcing capabilities, improving merchandising, and driving superior business unit economics.
Prior to joining Pepperfry, Budhia was the Head of Strategy at Barbeque Nation where he was instrumental in raising funds and steering the company to IPO. His earlier stints include, being associated with Jupiter Capital in their Investment Team and with Goldmans Sachs in their Investment Banking Team where he has been part of multiple M&A transactions. Budhia is an MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies and a Chartered Accountant from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
Ashish Shah, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, Pepperfry, said, “Over the past decade Pepperfry has democratised the availability of Furniture and Home Goods in the country. Through its Omnichannel presence across 100+ towns and in-house supply chain capabilities, Pepperfry has built a vibrant one-stop platform for buyers and sellers to meet and transact. As we enter into a new phase where we look to harness these capabilities and grow the category in India, we are excited to bring in Kushal Budhia to lead our Furniture Marketplace. Kushal brings in a wealth of strategic and operating knowledge with prior expertise in running businesses at scale and he will use the same to define our future roadmap for the furniture marketplace at Pepperfry”.
Commenting on the new role, Budhia said, “The consumer tech journey in India and worldwide has been very progressive. The changing consumption patterns of aspirational and affluent households have been largely driving growth in this market. Our marketplace with a strong network of merchants and House Brands provides a wide product portfolio that expands our catalogue to increase the addressable market. I am looking forward to building a robust framework that will help our business maximize the benefits from the current market opportunities.”
