A few years ago, the concept of shared/coworking spaces was unknown. It is worthy to mention how coworking spaces have proved their worth in the market and are replacing traditional offices. The global market value of flexible workspaces is estimated at an approximate $26 billion. Additionally, there are 35,000 plus flexible workspaces in the world today. Talking about India, the potential market size for the coworking segment currently stands in the range of 12-16 million.
Let’s take a look at the top 10 most successful coworking spaces in India:
#1 OneCulture
Founded by Abhilash Shukla, OneCulture is a diverse, quality workspace designed meticulously to increase productivity. The cultural workplace is designed with a walk through technology attitude and AI driven facilities to best suit your needs. With alluring features such as pure air quality, ample lighting, ambiance along with the general layout of the interior to have a significant impact on health, satisfaction, wellbeing, and staff productivity, OneCulture offers you all the basic luxuries. Currently functioning successfully in Gurgaon, the firm soon has plans to expand to Delhi, Noida, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai. On a global scale, OneCulture is planning to spread its wings over Singapore,Malaysia, Dubai, Manilla, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Hong Kong by 2021.
OneCulture has used AI impressively and believes in offering its clientele world class, matchless hospitality. Topping the list of AI innovations, OneCulture provides Automated Visitor Management System with Scheduler, 100 % SIP enabled studios and cloud printing. Another charming feature is “The Cafe”, where a healthy diet and organic drinks welcome you.The use of advanced wellness technology has aided OneCulture coworking space for providing health assessments, mind relaxation, nutrients tracking, health checkups, insurance coverage, etc. Fun games like foosball, table tennis, Arcade machines and many more help you relax post work.
In a very short span of time, the company has gained the trust of major brands like Harley Davidson, Asianpaints etc. It hosts events for social benefits, awareness drives for the general public and sessions inside the campus to engage with different communities. This premium coworking hive adheres to the notion that employees need to feel comfortable and calm in their physical work settings. The projections of the company exhibit that the total area leased by coworking spaces in Tier I and II cities could reach 6-10 million square feet by 2020.
#2 Innov8
Innov8 is one of the top coworking spaces. Founded by Dr Ritesh Malik, the space offers crafted workspaces where people can create, connect, and grow their businesses. Innov8 hosts people from diverse backgrounds. The spaces are located in Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Noida. The coworking startup has 190 companies on board and claims to have a 95% occupancy across centres. As mentioned, it is spread over major cities and hence understands the ambiance of each city. It is a hub for businesses, entrepreneurship and creative collaboration and supports the growth of businesses by providing them with space, right facts, and professional help.
#3 91SpringBoard
91springboard, a coworking space operating in Delhi NCR, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, is also one of the prosperous spaces in India. The firm is diverse with members from all communities like entrepreneurs, freelancers, corporates and international companies. The firm focuses on increasing its networking base and knowledge gaining. One of the most talked about event of the firm is mentor hours, where a large list of industry experts mentor entrepreneurs across various verticals. 91Springboard is also known for organizing meetups, workshops and seminars that address a variety of business needs of these entrepreneurs. 91springboard has plans for part-time (flexible timing), Batman (night hours), Student (for 3 months), Day Pass (any desk for 8 hours), etc. The locations typically fill up in a six to eight month period after opening up and turns profitable. It raised two rounds of funding: first in 2016 and then in 2017.
#4 Cowrks
Cowrks has a member base including freelancers,startups and small and medium businesses. The firm claims to have 10,000 plus active members and aims to be amongst the top coworking spaces. Sidharth Menda, CEO, CoWrks, stated, “We handpick our members to suit each other’s needs as more than 30 percent of companies owned by our members are doing business with each other. All our members are interconnected across centers via the CoWrks Connect app, which becomes a platform for our members to identify those who share their skills and interests, showcase their brand, and engage in networking and knowledge sharing.” ‘The CoWrks Foundry’, a well-architected 24-week programme is provided to support early-stage start-ups.Additionally, its app ‘CoWrks Connect’ helps in worldwide connectivity with the global CoWrks community. Since the firm is 24*7 operational, members get the privilege of logging in at any time.
#4 ALTF Coworking
ALTF was founded by Yogesh Arora and Sarthak Chhabra, around two years ago. The firm is concentrating majorly on tier I cities. The space started out in Gurgaon and later expanded to Delhi-NCR. However, ALTF plans to expand its spaces to Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad soon. The space values privacy and is focusing on this area so that each team gets their own space and privacy in a coworking environment. Plans of launching a community portal are on board. The designs of the office spaces bring people a lot closer to nature. The spaces have relief zones such as pool areas, beach area, desert zones, and music stations etc. In some locations, they have open terrace gardens to help people lead a stress free life in the fresh air.
#5 Wework India
Because of the emergence of various enterprises and startups, Wework has shifted its focus on metro cities. Wework is soon planning to spread over to Chennai, Pune, and Hyderabad. Karan Virwani, CEO, WeWork India believes in working together to create a diverse successful space. The firm believes in increasing productivity and offers its members the flexibility around work and a productive environment. A noticeable aspect of WeWork India’s growth story is that 50 percent of its members are large enterprises. The global team of the firm is over 2,83,000 members virtually and in person. It also provides a range of services like healthcare, IT, payroll and legal support for the members, if needed.
#6 BHIVE
Spread over seven locations, BHIVE has a member base consisting of large-sized organizations, start-ups and freelancers. BHIVE has hosted more than 600 events, where many leaders have shared their knowledge generously. Members can work out of any of the other centers for a limited period during the month. Ravindra MK, Co-founder, Bhive says, “Though the peak timings remain 9am to 6am, we have quite a few teams working at different shifts. This ranges from companies who work in the US/UK shift, start-ups and freelancers who prefer to work during off-peak hours as well as flexi seat members who use the space as per their specific needs. In addition, we have special offers for corporate employees who use our space instead of working from home.” BHIVE was the first coworking space to raise professional VC funding.
#7 Redbrick Offices
Redbrick offices kick-started in Mumbai and later expanded to Bangalore. After analyzing Bangalore, they found that the market was over-saturated and the city was suffering in various other measures like traffic. Hence, the focus shifted to Hyderabad and Pune where it expanded four and two centres respectively. Redbrick’s client base is a mix of entrepreneurs, freelancers or small businesses. The environment at Redbrick helps people to come out of their comfort zones, and connect with each other and be a part of the community. Around 60 per cent of its clientele is corporate.
#8 Smartworks
With active presence nine locations in both tier I and tier II cities, Smartworks is also one of the rapid growing spaces in the market. Smartworks kick-started its first facility in the growing business hub, Hyderabad. Marching forward, it is positive about expanding to many other cities along with the ones it already has a presence in — Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata. 90 per cent of its employees are from enterprises. Some of the large corporates that workout of its centres are Tata Communications, Microsoft, ArcelorMittal, Amazon, Carrier, Otis, Daikin, Lenovo, Bacardi, and OLX. Smartworks organizes various activities to ensure high community engagement within its facilities, including in-house F&B services, live bands, Djembe classes etc. Additionally, the launch of Smart Weekends is planned to increase productivity.
#9 AWFIS
Awfis is a known name in the coworking space industry with a nation-wide network of 55 centres with 25000+ seats in nine cities and 45 micro markets. 20 per cent of the member base is start-ups, entrepreneurs, and freelancers while 40 per cent are SMEs and 40 per cent are corporates. This percentile increases chances of business opportunities and allows the flow of commerce. AWFIS provides access to over 500+ exclusive events and experiences every year for its community members. Amit Ramani, Founder, AWFIS, encourages collaboration through fun events like birthday celebrations, festival celebrations, musical fests, stand-up comedy, special breakfast and lunch events as well as bespoke trips and group expeditions to unique locations. The centres are open from 8am to 8pm.
#10 Gowork
Gowork is a great supporter of startup clients and hence, organizes special workshops, hackathons, and pitching sessions for them. Sudeep Singh, Chief Evangelist and CEO, GoWork, believes in making GoWork a collaborative space for millennials with different attitudes and ever-changing lifestyle needs. Services like gyms, spas, fun zones, cafes, bars, vegan food, herbal waters, nutritionist support, sleeping pods and crèche facility are some attractive features of the firm. Events such as workshops, hackathons, the art of living sessions, bring your pet to work days and reading sessions to create engaging peer communities are conducted from time to time to keep the refreshing spirit alive. The cowork is in talks with PE investors and plan to raise $200 million through its next funding round.
The stats in the world of coworking prove that they are here to stay. 71% of the co-workers reported a rise in their creativity levels after joining any co-working space. 90% of the people said their creativity graph rose. With such alluring stats, it is evident that coworking will revolutionize the way people think about offices.
