Hyderabad: Co-working space provider 91springboard is seeing growth opportunities across the major metros. The company has 25 centres in nine cities that include Hyderabad (with centres in Hitec City and Kavuri Hills), Bengaluru, New Delhi, Gurgaon, Goa, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Noida and Pune. It is planning to add its third centre in Hyderabad soon and make deeper inroads into existing cities with more centres and double its overall capacity in the next 12-18 months. 91springboard will expand its presence in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, NCR, Chennai and Kolkata with more centres in near future as the concept is seeing faster adoption in these cities. Having begun its operations in 2013, the company which has a seat capacity of about 13,000 now is in the process of adding another 5,000 seats with seven more centres that are under development. The company hosts startups, enterprises, NGOs, investment firms and freelancers. It also plans to provide new features. Pranay Gupta, co-founder, 91springboard, told Telangana Today, “Co-working has been a global phenomenon for several years. The US and Europe have seen strong activity in the past. It is seen that through co-working spaces, occupants are able to make savings of about 30-40 per cent compared to creating their own space elsewhere. While in advanced economies, co-working space contributes significantly in the commercial realty space, in India the concept is still catching up with only one per cent being occupied by co-working space.” Unlike many co-working space providers in the country, 91springboard operates in a blended model providing workspaces as well as incubator ecosystem. The co-working space segment is seeing different models today. Some offer jus08 shared workspaces, some offer only incubator facilities while new models such as restaurant and bar with short stay work and networking space have emerged. “For us infrastructure is just a commodity. We look at addressing the gaps in the segment, achieve better margins and provide better client satisfaction,” Gupta said. Talking of major trends, he says, “Millennials are driving co-working segment. They have a fitment to co-working space culture. They are social and believe in networking and work in an interactive environment.” “Millennials are better aware of surroundings and other alternatives. They are learning fast. They are highly demanding and seek infrastructure that add value to their operations. They ensure co-working space providers maintain high quality. This will remain a key category that we will continue to focus in future,” he added. 91springboard is eyeing for growth opportunities in the co-working space with almost 60 per cent of its clients being startups. Niti Aayog has recognised its centres as incubators enabling startups with right community engagement, helping companies scale up with networking opportunity. It also runs programmes that help startups with mentoring support. Facebook and Google are working with the company to design tailor-made programmes for the startups, many of them being led by millennials. “We have enabled a lot of corporate tie ups for these startups and believe in enhancing engagement with them as well as government in future,” he added. 91springboard has already raised about $30 million in the past. The company which says is well-funded has cash-flows that will help it operate smoothly. It has already achieved profitability. On further funding, Gupta adds, “To accelerate our growth, we will look at fresh fund raising. We are in talks with investors and expect to raise in the range of $20-40 million in the next 12-18 months. This will help us establish new centres across India. As the market is expanding, we want to scale up fast.”
91springboard plans to double its footprint in the next 18 months. The Indian co-workspace operator, which currently operates 25 centres in nine cities, with capacity for 13,000 is in the process opening a another seven centres which will add a further 5,000 desks. Co-founder Gupta said he company was in talks with investors and expected to raise $20-$40m in the next 18 months to fund its expansion plans.