Realty firm Embassy Group, the joint venture partner in WeWork India, has pumped in around Rs 100 crore ($15.6 million) in the company as the shared space provider aims to expand into multiple locations across Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi amid growing competition in this segment.
Embassy Buildcon was allocated 100,00,000 compulsory convertible debentures in return for its investment, filings with the Registrar of Companies show.
Out of the total Rs 100 crore, the Embassy Group already invested Rs 50 crore into the co-working space provider, the filings revealed.
WeWork India is a joint venture between New York-headquartered co-working space provider WeWork and Bengaluru-based property developer Embassy Group.
The SoftBank-backed firm, which is considered the world’s biggest co-working startup, entered India in July 2017 and opened a centre in Bangalore, christened as ‘WeWork Galaxy’. Later, in September 2017, it opened one centre in Mumbai and an additional one in Bangalore. Overall, WeWork is present in three Indian cities, Bangalore (four work stations), Mumbai (three), and Delhi NCR (one).
It will use the fresh funds to meet business and operating expenses in addition to investing in procuring and developing office spaces.
Jitendra Mohandas Virwani, chairman and managing director of Embassy Group, and Karan Virwani are the designated partners of the investing firm Embassy Buildcon. WeWork India is headed by scion Karan.
PR Ramakrishnan, Embassy Group’s chief financial officer; Christian Lee, managing director, WeWork Asia; and Karan Virwani constitute the board of directors of WeWork India.
An e-mail query sent to WeWork India did not immediately elicit a response at the time of publishing this report.
Founded in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey, WeWork is valued at over $20 billion.
In August last year, the co-working space provider secured a massive $4.4 billion from the SoftBank Group and its Vision Fund.
Apart from startups, WeWork offers its shared workspaces to large enterprises looking to set up micro-teams in such environments. The company manages 278 office locations in 59 cities across the globe.
The concept of co-working seems to be thriving in India, with a number of homegrown players eliciting investor interest.
In November 2017, Nimit Mahajan of Nimitaya Group launched GoWork and claims it to be the world’s largest “co-working ecosystem†in Gurgaon. GoWork has two campuses located 100 metres apart, spread over 4.5 lakh sq ft and 3.5 lakh sq ft, respectively. The co-working spaces, claimed to have been built for Rs 800 crore, can house about 12,000 people.
In September 2017, Delhi-based 91Springboard raised funds from Sandway Investment Ltd, Pearl Brook Holdings, AMA Holdings, Silo Holdings and Al Nour. It has so far secured over $20 million. In the same month, cricketer Yuvraj Singh-backed Creator’s Gurukul raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a clutch of investors.
In June 2017, co-working startup BHIVE raised $1.2 million in fresh funding led by existing investor Blume Ventures.
In April 2017, Delhi-based Awfis raised $20 million in a Series B round from Sequoia Capital. In the same month, The Office Pass, launched by Makaan co-founder Aditya Verma, raised seed investment from a group of individual investors.
In February last year, Innov8 raised angel funding from Venture Catalysts and individual investors, including Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Google’s Rajan Anandan, through online deals platform LetsVenture.
In January 2017, Gurgaon-based InstaOffice raised pre-Series A funding led by online venture capital platform Globevestor and other angel investors including ed-tech startup Toppr’s Zishaan Hayath.
