Now, hire an office space for the price of pizza.

Targeted at nimble and sprouting start-ups across the country, Awfis Space Solutions has launched a mobile-based application to book office space with Wi-Fi and other basic facilities at ₹300-500 a day in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Promoted by Radha Kapoor, daughter of Rana Kapoor co-founder of YES Bank and emerging entrepreneur Amit Ramani, Awfis provides 1,500 office cabins, table space and meeting rooms for as low as one hour to 11 months across seven centres in three cities. The promoters have made an initial investment of ₹65 crore and plan to enhance capacity to 3,500 seats by March.

The company has drawn plans to set up 10,000 seats across 60 centres in Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata by end of this year. It plans to raise $40-50 million (about ₹330 crore) by the end of next year to fuel growth.

Awfis has also tied up with Trident, Hyatt and Lemon Tree to list 100 meeting rooms at select locations on its platform.

Speaking to BusinessLine Ramani, CEO and Co-founder, said the just-in-time office space concept has already received good response with 12 start-ups in Bengaluru hooking in through Awfis.

“In fact, some of the venture capitalists before investing are insisting the start-ups to use our services as they do not want them to splurge capital in deposit, rentals and maintenance of own office space at the initial stage,” he added.

This apart, he said, Awfis is also in talks with top insurance company and audit firm to lease out space for their marketing staff.

It has also signed strategic partnership to provide allied services such as accounting, legal, recruitment, payments, web services, mail management, healthcare and insurance.

Interestingly, Ramani said about 60 high networth investors, who invested in real estate boom have approached Awfis for partnership as it assures steady return for them.

“Unlike other office space providers, we do not insist on one year rental agreement or take any security deposit in advance. With the planned 10,000 seats, our business has the potential to generate revenue of ₹10 crore a month and break-even with 40 per cent occupancy,” he said.

Awfis, the co-working spaces and solutions provider, has turned profitable in little over three years since its commencement .

The company, which could be considered a startup, has grown to 30,000 seats across 10 metros and cities with 63 centres up from 3,000. It is now looking at entering five more cities with its co-working spaces.

Amit Ramani, Founder and CEO of Awfis, said, “Awfis spaces and ‘Autonomous Work Space solutions’ have been now operational across 10 major metros and cities and we are looking at making entry into five Tier II cities during the year.”

These cities include Indore, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Kochi and Jaipur. This will enable us to take our presence to 15 cities with over 100 centres with total seating capacity of 60,000 seats, he said.

Explaining how the company, which employs about 210 people, is working towards its growth plans, Ramani told BusinessLine, “We have turned profitable and expect to close the current financial year with revenues of ₹160 crore up from ₹1.2 crore, ₹18 crore and ₹56 crore respectively over the past four years. And we are on course for a turnover of over ₹200 crore logging about ₹17 crore per month.”

“Our plans is to grow the business at a rapid pace and take the company to an IPO within the next three years,” he explained.

Mentioning about its Autonomous Work Space Solutions, Ramani said “a registered user can check into and walk out of a workspace without any human interface and carry out his business. By simplifying processes, we have acquired a strong customer base which includes the likes of Amazon and Microsoft among 1700 other companies and firms.”

In India co-working space is poised for growth and the enormous opportunities it presents Awfis will enable us to consolidate and expand at a rapid pace. We had raised over $ 51 million and the growth momentum continues, he said.

Visit the below link to read the published article: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/https://gomile.awfis.com/inspiration/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/shutterstock_3835072871.jpg-turns-profitable-set-to-expand-to-5-more-cities/article26567872.ece

Co-working space major Awfis is on a rapid expansion mode and now plans to double its seats from 25,000 and 55 centres to 50,000 and 100 centres by June-July 2019.

The workspaces provider has grown from its first facility three years ago to 25,000 seats, about five months ahead of its its initial planned March 2019 date, and is now looking at doubling the number each passing year.

Amit Ramani, Chief Executive Officer, Awfis, said, “We have scaled up to 25,000 seats across 55 centres from 5,800 seats in 20 centres in July 2017. Our network, which includes start-ups, small and medium enterprises and leading corporate entities such as Hinduja, Vodafone, Mercedes Benz, and Hitachi, continues to expand.”

Earlier this year, Awfis had raised $20 million in Series C funding from Sequoia India and Innoven Capital and The Three Sisters: Institutional Office TTS:IO led by Radha Kapoor Khanna. with the $20 million Series B funding from Sequoia, the overall funding exceeds $50 million.

Win-win situation

The co-working space as a category has been growing at a rapid pace as it is able to transform under-utilised real estate assets, including spaces in malls and some hospitality projects into efficient work spaces for entrepreneurs and corporate clients. This is a win-win situation for the real estate owner, for Awfis as also for those who take up space.

By 2020, Awfis is looking at 1,00,000 seats and taking this number up to 2,00,000 seats with 400 plus centres a year thereafter. The industry now estimated to be worth about $600 million is projected to grow to $2.2 billion by 2022, thereby offering immense scope for a services provider like Awfis.

The demand is coming not just from micro-markets in large metros and major cities but from a number of Tier II cities, where there is untapped demand.

Over the last 12 months a about 80 per cent of the business has come from small and medium enterprises and corporate entities. This trend is expected to continue, with start ups too accounting for a growing numbers, Ramani said.

Mentioning that they had raised more than $50 million, the funding available and the realty share model with owners will enable to to meet immediate expansion plans, Ramani said that “Last fiscal, we closed with a turnover of ₹55 crore and this fiscal is likely to see a turnover of ₹170 crore.”

Visit the below link to read the published article: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/co-working-spaces-major-https://gomile.awfis.com/inspiration/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/shutterstock_3835072871.jpg-to-double-seats-to-50000-by-july/article25382026.ece