On June 1, Ashish Shah, the co-founder and chief operating officer of Indian furniture e-commerce company Pepperfry, said in an interview with India’s largest news agency PTI (Newspaper Trust of India) that the company expects to achieve profitability after the market opens, and to became a unicorn company before the IPO.

"We are a company with a turnover of 10 billion rupees (approximately 873 million yuan), and we are very close to profitability. After the market reopens, I think we will usher in the first profit point. After this, we plan to IPO within 12-18 months."

He said that in terms of corporate value, the company is expected to soon become a unicorn company. "We are restructuring the company structure. Once completed, we will begin the DRHP process, and is expected to soon become a billion-dollar company. Our IPO valuation will also be within this range."

Before a company conducts an IPO, it must submit a DRHP (Red Herring Draft Prospectus) to the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the capital market regulator.

Shah said that offline experience stores contributed 30% of Pepperfry's overall retail sales, and also announced plans to add 200 franchised offline stores in second and third tier cities.

In the past 6 years, Pepperfry has opened more than 70 offline experience stores in 28 cities in India. The company has four warehouses in Bangalore, Jodhpur, Mumbai and Delhi.

To date, the company has raised US$235 million from Goldman Sachs, Norwest Venture Partners and Bertelsmann Investments India.