Awfis to expand co-working space four-fold by 2020; to be profitable in FY19

With rising demand of shared office space, co-working operator Awfis has chalked an aggressive plan to expand its business by four times to 200 centres comprising one lakh seats over the next three years.

The company had in July raised USD 20 million (about Rs 137.57 crore) from a few investors, including Sequoia India, for expanding its operations and could raise more if required, its founder and CEO Amit Ramani said.

Awfis, which was founded in April 2015, will become profitable at entity level from next month, while centres are already making money, he added.

"We currently have 55 centres in 9 cities, comprising about 25,000 seats with a member base of over 15,000," he told PTI.

 

Its centres are in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Chandigarh.

The target is to reach 100 centres and 42,000 seats in the next 10-12 months, Ramani said. "By 2020, we are targeting to reach 1,00,000 seats in about 200 centres," he added.

Asked about the revenue, Ramani said the company achieved a topline of Rs 57 crore last fiscal and the same is expected to reach Rs 170 crore by end of this fiscal.

On further funding, he said the company has recently raised USD 20 million in series C funding from marquee investors Sequoia India and Innoven Capital as well as TTS:IO. Since inception, the company has raised USD 51 million.

"We have been successful in attracting institutional investors' money," Ramani said.

Besides cities where Awfis has presence, he said the company plans to enter tier II cities like Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Kochi and Indore.

"Our priority is to deepen the penetration in existing markets and enter new cities with focus on tier II locations. By 2020, we will have more than 50 centres each in Mumbai and Delhi-NCR," he added.

With the growing demand for co-working spaces, Ramani said there is a focus on transforming under-utilised real estate assets and providing affordable work spaces for entrepreneurs.

Awfis provides co-working space in a price range of Rs 5,000-15,000 per seat.

Ramani said the company has developed a tailor-made mobile application that enables users to find, review, book work spaces in its centres on real time basis.

"We are now focusing on mobility solutions, like national pass, virtual office, Awfis roaming and bulk meeting room hours, that have been designed with the aim to enable professionals to work seamlessly from anywhere," he added.