Some of the events include networking sessions, hackathons or even a standup comedy show. GoWork, CoWrks, Awfis and WeWork are early movers in this revenue-generation stream.

CHENNAI: Imagine going to work in the morning and partying on the same premises in the evening. Co-working spaces across the country are doing exactly this to make money in more ways than just lending its offices as a work space. Having invested in swanky lounges and decors, these offices are opening up their conference rooms, cafeterias and other amenities to conduct events for their members and also third-party companies — all for a charge.

Some of the events include networking sessions, hackathons or even a standup comedy show. GoWork, CoWrks, Awfis and WeWork are early movers in this revenue-generation stream.

With events contributing 20% of revenues, GoWork looks to increase the contribution by another 5-10% this year, under its GoSocial wing. “Sometimes, non-member companies also use our facilities for the same charge,” said GoWork CEO & chief evangelist Sudeep Singh.

CoWrks, with the launch of its vertical Converge, offers their meeting and conference rooms on hourly charges. “Facilities are available at competitive rates in comparison to conducting events in any other 5-star hotel properties,” said CoWrks director (new products) Nruthya Madappa.

While Cowrks offers a per-hour charge, GoWork charges Rs 80,000 a day for a basic hackathon for 100 members. Seat charge for a person for basic amenities is Rs 6,500 per month.

Some of the spaces also offer a barter-based approach to non-member companies. “For instance, if an upcoming F&B brand approaches us, we ask them to provide food for our events in exchange for business opportunities. However, if such a mutual agreement can’t be drawn, third-party companies would have to pay a charge,” said Awfis AVP (marketing) Sukriti Pandey.

Sumeet Kapoor, CEO of Delhi-based startup Employwise, an occupant of Go-Work, finds it easy to plan and organise office HR functions. “It is not easy to conduct events for a gathering of 200-odd people,” he said.

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Awfis Space Solutions operates its second largest centre, spread over 50,000 sq feet, in Pune, which is the biggest market for the company with 7,000 seats across 12 centres.

BENGALURU: India’s largest home-grown co-working space provider Awfis Space Solutions has opened its largest centre in the country in Bengaluru which is spread over 63,000 square feet and can house 1,050 workstations.

The company has 20 centres in southern India, including Hyderabad and Bengaluru, totalling 10,000 seats.

“Bengaluru is a big market and this is our fourth centre in a CBD (central business district) and 11th in Bengaluru,” said Sumit Lakhani, Chief Marketing Officer, Awfis Space Solutions

The centre is already 80% occupied as a result of pre-launch sale of its seats to clients such as Reliance Communications, Frontizo Business Services, Equal Experts and The Math Company.

Awfis Space Solutions operates its second largest centre, spread over 50,000 sq feet, in Pune, which is the biggest market for the company with 7,000 seats across 12 centres.

“We have a network of 63 centres and 30,000-plus seats spread across 10 cities and aim to double capacity to 60,000 seats in the next 12 months,” said Lakhani.

The Mumbai-headquartered firm saw its revenue jump nearly threefold year-on-year in 2018-19 to Rs 158 crore from Rs 56 crore. It expects an exit annual revenue run rate of Rs 400 crore by March 2020. “The company is already profitable since October 2018 at company level,” said Lakhani.

The company recently raised $20 million in series C funding from its existing investors – global venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, The Three Sisters: Institutional Office (TTS:IO) led by Radha Kapoor and Temasek Group company InnoVen Capital – to support its growth plan.

Earlier, the firm had raised $31 million through two rounds from TTS:IO and founder Amit Ramani. In its maiden exposure to the company, the California-based Sequoia Capital invested $20 million.

Flexible workspaces account for about a fifth of office leasing in India. The emergence of space uptake in co-working affirms that corporates are aligned to a mixed portfolio strategy of fixed and flexible space. Total gross leasing volume in India touched almost 13 million sq feet during the first quarter of 2019, which was 1.45 times higher than the year-ago figure, showed data from Cushman & Wakefield India.

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The company is planning to set up eight new centres across these five cities taking its total portfolio to 63 centres with 30,000 seats across 10 cities.

India’s largest home-grown co-working space provider Awfis Space Solutions has picked up 3 lakh sq ft of office space in Pune, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Noida and Chennai on a long-term lease to continue its aggressive expansion across the country.

The company is planning to set up eight new centres across these five cities taking its total portfolio to 63 centres with 30,000 seats across 10 cities. Total tenure of these leases range between five year and nine years.

The proposed expansion is in line with Awfis’ definite growth strategy of doubling seats every year to reach the 2 lakh seats milestone by 2021. Currently, Awfis is India’s only co-working space provider with a nation-wide network of 63 centres across 10 cities.

“With over 3 lakh square feet of office space added to Awfis portfolio, we continue to move towards our target of reaching 2 lakh seats over the next 3 years. From around 5,800 desks in July 2017, we’ve now reached 30,000 desks in a span of 18 months – strengthening our position as a market leader in the co-working segment,” Amit Ramani, founder & CEO, Awfis, told ET. “We are now extremely excited to witness Awfis’ next phase of expansion which will enable us to hit the 50,000 seats mark this year itself.”

The company recently raised $20 million in series C funding from its existing investors global venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, The Three Sisters: Institutional Office (TTS:IO) led by Radha Kapoor and Temasek Group company InnoVen Capital to support the growth plan.

Before this, the company had raised $31 million through two rounds from TTS:IO and founder Amit Ramani. In its maiden exposure to the company, the California-based Sequoia Capital invested $20 million in the company.

The latest funding will be to support the company’s next phase of growth. Over the last one year, it has already increased the presence to 25,000 seats across 55 centres spread over nearly 1.7 million sq ft. The company’s additional 8 centres will get operational in 45 days taking total space to 2 million sq ft.

Awfis has grown its revenue four times for the year ended March 2018 from March 2017 and expects to clock revenue worth Rs 170 crore in the current financial year.

“Co-working has truly proved to be a game-changer for the commercial real estate sector in India. Awfis’ aggressive growth is a huge testament to the evolution of this segment – not just in Tier I cities but also in Tier II cities. Our flourishing business development strategy and the positive market response to our centres gives us great confidence to keep doubling our capacity every year,” Sumit Lakhani, chief marketing officer, Awfis, told ET.

While several other co-working space providers have resorted to large hubs, Awfis has preferred to spread across more cities and locations with moderate size of centres. The company’s largest co-working hub with 850 seats is in phase II of Hyderabad’s Hi-Tech city.

The demand for co-working spaces or shared offices is gaining momentum across the country and as many as 13 million people, equivalent to the current population of India’s Silicon Valley Bengaluru, are estimated to work out of such facilities by 2020.

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