Co-working space provider WeWork plans to open offices in Benglauru, Mumbai and Delhi/NCR as it believes corporations will make use of its facilities to appeal to the millennial crowd.
The lure of A lounge bar-like ambience, Starbucks-like coffee, fast net connectivity and beer on tap, seems to be some of the perks that will drive the growth for New York-headquartered WeWork, which has set up its first co-working space in Bengaluru.
“We see the changing trend of millennials as well as companies wanting a different kind of workplace rather than the boring and dull office cubicles,” said Karan Virwani, Director, WeWork India, adding that the old model of office space will soon be dead.
In Bengaluru, WeWork has built its co-working space on lease with amenities such as conference rooms and Wi-Fi connectivity, all of which can be booked through the WeWork app. Around 200 members use its facilities, costs of which start from ₹9,000 a month. The first facility has a capacity of 2,200 seats. Further, the company, which has a valuation of $16 billion, is planning to open two more facilities in Bengaluru, with a capacity of 2,400 seats.
WeWork is seeing this trend play out in other parts of the country, too. Virwani, said a co-working space is coming up in Mumbai with a capacity of 1,900 seats and another one in Delhi/NCR with a capacity of around 1,400 seats.
Other providers such as Innov8, has attracted talent from Paytm at its Bengaluru office.
The co-working sector seems to be attracting investments. BHIVE Workspace, another co-working space provider, with 1 lakh square feet of office space across 10 locations in Bengaluru, last month raised $1.2 million from Blume Ventures, actor-director Ramesh Aravind and other investors.
Shesh Rao Paplikar, co-founder and CEO, BHIVE Workspace, said the entity is set to cross ₹12-crore annual revenue run rate, and based on its current pipeline, expects to clock ₹100 crore in the next 12 months.
According to Meghna Agarwal, co-founder, Indiqube, another co-working space provider, the demand for new office spaces in the country will reach 40 million square feet by the end of 2017.