India warms up to co-working spaces!
When it comes to office space, co-working, predominantly a concept and culture of the western world till one or two years ago, is fast catching up in Indian metro cities now. Co-working involves various individuals or start-ups sharing a common workplace environment with flexibility making them suitable for different kinds of occupiers. These co-working spaces through their new age workspace designs and best in class technology are well positioned to bring in benefits of shared economy to start-ups, MSMEs and corporates. Interestingly, according to a survey by PWC, millenials will form 50 per cent of the global workforce by 2020. With a special focus upon new workplace designs and work cultures, a large number of national and international co-working spaces are taking care of the holistic wellness of its employees by providing them sports and games facilities, gaming zones, spa, meditation and frustration zones to release the office blues, concierge services and large event areas for office parties and summits. Read more
Quite significantly, as the concept of co-working spaces gains momentum, private equity players and property developers are looking at making investments in the spaces. Investors like Blume Ventures, Sequoia Capital are not only investing in this segment but also there is a rise of Korean and Chinese investors. While PE firm Sequoia India pumped in Rs. 130 crore in co-working space AWFIS, WeWork has signed an operating agreement with commercial property developer Embassy Group to set up its office at Embassy Galaxy in Bangalore, Skootr has associated with DLF to build the largest co-working space in India.
Ramesh Nair, CEO & country head, JLL India, points out that at a pan-India level, co-working space of 0.73 million square feet got absorbed last year and in terms of the number of seats available, around 9,600 are available at co-working facilities across the country. Out of the total absorption, Mumbai threw up a surprise with the highest absorption nationally, followed by Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad. In terms of seats available, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai lead the way and are followed by Bangalore, Kolkata, etc.
These office spaces, according to a recent study by Colliers Research, were not very prevalent two years back but last year the co-working footprint has increased considerably. “Currently, more than 160 operators facilitate co-working offices with over 350 operational centres across various Tier I and Tier II cities in India. As tech startups were the first ones to pioneer the use of co-working spaces in India, we can see maximum concentration of co-working hubs in the IT capital, Bengaluru followed by other cities like NCR and Mumbai. Pune, Chennai, and Hyderabad have a relatively smaller share of the co-working industry. We expect that the concentration of co-working hubs will intensify in cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Gurgaon thanks to the availability of adequate infrastructure and opportunities for start-ups. Among Tier II locations, cities that have a presence of technology companies such as Pune, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Kochi will also witness the emergence of co-working hubs,” says the Colliers Research study.
InstaOffice, another fast growing network of co-working spaces and business centres, recently opened up its new centre in Gurgaon at Sector-45, continuing with its commitment to providing an office within a radius of every 3 to 4 kilometres, ensuring that your office is never more than 20 minutes away. With a capacity of 100 seats, it is InstaOffice’s 10th centre in India, including two in Indiranagar, Bangalore. InstaOffice’s offerings include a plethora of office space solutions, including shared workstations, private cabins. meeting rooms and virtual offices. InstaOffice members range from early stage startups, mobile professionals and SMBs to large mature corporations, including Yahoo, Amazon, Staples. Appier, Dr. Reddy’s Foundation etc.
"With co-working spaces, you don't need to buy furniture, set up Internet or get in the long process of signing a lease. You can get started only within 30 minutes of walking in,"" says Vikas Lakhani, co-founder of InstaOffice, which has served over 500 members in the last 15 months of its operations, increasing to 2000 members shortly.
Radha Kapoor Khanna, sponsor, promoter and board member, AWFIS says, “India’s start-up and MSME community are extremely important for the growth, innovation and transformation of the Indian economy. An integral component for accelerating this eco-system is the creation of collaborative and high energy work spaces for the entrepreneurial community. We believe that Awfis, through its new age workspace designs and best in class technology is well positioned to bring in benefits of shared economy to start-ups, MSMEs and corporates.” Awfis was jointly incubated by Amit Ramani and The Three Sisters: Institutional Office (‘TTS:IO’) led by the three daughters of Yes Bank supremo Rana Kapoor (Radha, Raakhe and Roshini).
WeWork India, the Indian arm of the New-York based global co-working giant-WeWork is also on an expansion mode. The US co-working giant has already launched three workspaces in Bengaluru and 2 in Mumbai and is now well set to launch one in Gurugram, which will be called WeWork Bristol Chowk. WeWork therefore will soon have as many as six co-working spaces in India.
- Debhota Mukherjee (TradeBriefs Bureau) -