Cultivating the new culture, Growth Story of Co-working spaces in India

In last one week, 3 co-working spaces in India raised fundings from different investors.

Gurgaon based co-working space GoWork raised $53 million debt capital led by BlackRock’s private credit team. The startup also saw co-investment from CLSA Capital Partner’s Special Situations Group. This is the first Indian onshore private investment by New York-based investment management firm BlackRock after 5 Years.

A coworking startup based in Delhi-NCR, GoHive raised Pre-Series A funding of Rs. 2.5 crore in a round from anonymous angel investors to fuel its growth and expansion plan.

New Delhi-based co-working space provider Awfis has raised $30 million in its fourth round of funding from marquee investor ChrysCapital.The round also saw participation from its existing investors Sequoia India and The Three Sisters Institutional Office.

These three investments show the interest of big financial institutions in co-working startups.

This interest indicates the growing co-working culture in India.

Let’s check the top 5 players in the co-working market in India.

1. WeWork India– WeWork is an American company that provides shared workspaces for technology startup subculture communities, and services for entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups, small businesses, and large enterprises
2. 91SpringBoard– An homegrown co-working giant, 91springboard was launched in January 2013 out of a small space in Mohan Estate, New Delhi. Today they have reached 9 locations with the largest hub of 91springboard housing 1,000 plus members.
3. Innov8– Founded by Ritesh Malik, Innov8 Coworking is a Y- Combinator-backed workspaces and community startup based in India. Currently, OYO acquired Innov8 in order to move to premium workspace market with the presence of Innov8 in Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chandigarh.
4. Cowrks– Another homegrown co-working space provider CoWrks has 23 centers across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi, and Gurugram and is also looking to expand into tier-II cities like Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Indore, and Jaipur, apart from overseas locations. The company is operational for two-and-half years now.
5. Awfis– Awfis services more than 1,500 companies with a clientele portfolio across enterprises like Syngenta, Dun & Bradstreet, Duff & Phelps, Hinduja Global Services, Vodafone, Reliance, Hitachi, Blazeclan, Syngenta, Zomato and Practo. At present, it has a total real estate portfolio of two million sq ft across India.

We decided to explore the reasons behind the growing culture of co-working spaces.

Here are the reasons-

1. Cost-Effectiveness– The reason most of the corporate are choosing co-working spaces over the traditional office is cost-effectiveness. Instead of renting an office, buying furniture, paying for everything and providing coffee and snacks, you just pay for space and let the space provider manage everything. This saves money and energy both large corporations and is effective for the small business and startups.
2. Increase in Productivity– Working side by side with startups and industry innovators gives you more exposure and motivation towards innovation. Corporates are choosing co-working space because of the same reason.
3. Flexibility & Convenience- Coworking space gives the flexibility to choose between the geographical locations, cause nobody wants to travel and get stuck in jams. Shorter commutes are helpful in saving time and money both.

India is at the cusp of a revolution in co-working space as the domestic and global players such as WeWork, CoWrks, 91Springboard are pushing the market.

According to real estate advisory firm CBRE, India’s flexible workspace saw a 277 percent jump in leasing to reach nearly three million sqft in the first quarter of the calendar year 2019.

With a growing culture, co-working promises a healthy environment and a positive work environment.