MUMBAI, Feb. 5 -- As Indian homeowners become more involved in choosing how their homes look and what goes into them, investors are beginning to back startups that focus not on designing entire interiors, but on helping consumers directly discover and buy materials, bypassing traditional interior designers and full-stack execution firms.

Early-stage investors see the materials-led interiors segment as a large, under-utilized opportunity, estimated at about $14 billion, with rising consumer spend and no clear market leader.

This shift is playing out even as large, late-stage cheques continue to flow into end-to-end interior platforms. Capital is now spreading across different layers of the interiors value chain, with early-stage investor...