Hyderabad-based hyper-local co-workspaces and flexible leases startup iKeva has launched 2 new centres - 175 seats secured co-working space in Sector 44, Gurugram’s Premium location and another 165 seaters in Mumbai.
Besides highly functional private offices, dedicated desks, shared workspaces, meeting rooms, breakout rooms, networking spaces and other facilities, iKeva member benefits include an array of discounts and tools which benefit companies and individuals. It also offers to its members a curated list of service providers like CAs, lawyers, recruiters, HR consultants, UI designers, Software developers and more.
These 2 new centres follow Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai centres. iKeva started its operations in 2013 at Banjara Hills, Hyderabad and grew its footprint to 1200 seats and over 70000 sq ft. The company now boasts 6 centres across 5 cities and over 4000 members.
Monika Misra, founder and General Manager of iKeva, is upbeat about the sector and believes co-workspaces are the future of work culture.
Commenting on the development, Misra said, “All the iKeva centres run close to full capacity and we have been profitable. The key reason for our success is largely due to flexibility, followed by strategic location, what we have focus on the word start is to be ‘scaleable’ as we host a strong mix of corporates, startups, and freelancers in our spaces. The Gurugram co-working space has already signed up large enterprises, freelancers, startups and SMEs like Directi Group Company - Zeta, Applify, The Workforce Consulting Group as its members.”
iKeva business model continues to see rapid adoption nationwide, as a place where startups get to learn about business and scaling-up from Fortune 500 companies, on the other side fortune companies gain an opportunity to learn about innovation and agility from startups. iKeva earlier raised funding from Investors including Sateesh Andra, Dr Ramesh Byrapaneni, Dr Srikanth Sundararajan and Madhu Avalur, among others.
The additional centres being planned to be set up in the next 3-4 years are due to growing interest from Startups, SMEs and large enterprises for leasing offices in iKeva spaces.On company’s growth plans Misra said, “iKeva plans to grow to 50-80 centres in next 3-4 years.”
If we look at the figures of CBRE- ‘Art of Coworking Report’, it states that as office rentals continue the upward trend in India, the total space leased by co-working operators in tier I and tier II cities is expected to be almost 6 - 10 million sqft. by 2020. The demand for co-working spaces can be mirrored with some of its benefits. A report from CBRE states that cost saving of at least 10 - 25% by leasing in a co-working space as compared to conventional leasing in the larger cities of Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune.
It is not only the startup community who is taking the initiative to set up co-working spaces, Government is also equally contributing in it. Recently in June 2017, Commerce and Industry Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman had written a letter to all Members of Parliament (MPs) to consider setting up co-working spaces/incubators for Startups in their constituency under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme Fund (MPLADS). Apart from this, Sitharaman has also used her MPLAD fund to create a co-working space for startups in Mangaluru.
Besides highly functional private offices, dedicated desks, shared workspaces, meeting rooms, breakout rooms, networking spaces and other facilities, iKeva member benefits include an array of discounts and tools which benefit companies and individuals. It also offers to its members a curated list of service providers like CAs, lawyers, recruiters, HR consultants, UI designers, Software developers and more.
These 2 new centres follow Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai centres. iKeva started its operations in 2013 at Banjara Hills, Hyderabad and grew its footprint to 1200 seats and over 70000 sq ft. The company now boasts 6 centres across 5 cities and over 4000 members.
Monika Misra, founder and General Manager of iKeva, is upbeat about the sector and believes co-workspaces are the future of work culture.
Commenting on the development, Misra said, “All the iKeva centres run close to full capacity and we have been profitable. The key reason for our success is largely due to flexibility, followed by strategic location, what we have focus on the word start is to be ‘scaleable’ as we host a strong mix of corporates, startups, and freelancers in our spaces. The Gurugram co-working space has already signed up large enterprises, freelancers, startups and SMEs like Directi Group Company - Zeta, Applify, The Workforce Consulting Group as its members.”
iKeva business model continues to see rapid adoption nationwide, as a place where startups get to learn about business and scaling-up from Fortune 500 companies, on the other side fortune companies gain an opportunity to learn about innovation and agility from startups. iKeva earlier raised funding from Investors including Sateesh Andra, Dr Ramesh Byrapaneni, Dr Srikanth Sundararajan and Madhu Avalur, among others.
The additional centres being planned to be set up in the next 3-4 years are due to growing interest from Startups, SMEs and large enterprises for leasing offices in iKeva spaces.On company’s growth plans Misra said, “iKeva plans to grow to 50-80 centres in next 3-4 years.”
Sector Overview
If we look at the figures of CBRE- ‘Art of Coworking Report’, it states that as office rentals continue the upward trend in India, the total space leased by co-working operators in tier I and tier II cities is expected to be almost 6 - 10 million sqft. by 2020. The demand for co-working spaces can be mirrored with some of its benefits. A report from CBRE states that cost saving of at least 10 - 25% by leasing in a co-working space as compared to conventional leasing in the larger cities of Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune.
It is not only the startup community who is taking the initiative to set up co-working spaces, Government is also equally contributing in it. Recently in June 2017, Commerce and Industry Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman had written a letter to all Members of Parliament (MPs) to consider setting up co-working spaces/incubators for Startups in their constituency under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme Fund (MPLADS). Apart from this, Sitharaman has also used her MPLAD fund to create a co-working space for startups in Mangaluru.
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