WeWork India takes on lease 3.62 lakh sq ft office space in 2 buildings in Bengaluru for expansion

WeWork is India’s largest office space provider, aimed at creating flexible workspace solutions for companies of all sizes. Source: Reuters

Co-working major WeWork India on Thursday said it has taken on lease 3.62 lakh square feet office space in Bengaluru as part of its expansion plan amid rising demand for flexible workspace.

In 2017, WeWork Global had partnered with Bengaluru-based Embassy Group to enter the Indian market. WeWork India currently has over 5 million square feet of portfolio across 40 locations in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.

In a statement, WeWork India said it has taken on lease 3.1 lakh square feet at 'Kalyani Roshni Tech Hub' and 52,000 square feet at 'Embassy One'.

Set to open in December this year, Kalyani Roshni Tech Hub is located at Outer Ring Road and houses over 5,000 desks spread over eight floors.

Embassy One building is strategically located between two key business districts on Bellary Road with a capacity of over 600 desks across two floors.

WeWork India has entered into an operator model at Embassy One. On the other hand, Kalyani Roshni Tech Hub has been leased in collaboration with realty firm Kalyani Group.

Arnav S Gusain, Head of Real Estate - Product and Procurement at WeWork India, said, "As India Inc marches towards a hybrid working model, flexibility has become paramount for today's workforce." According to Colliers India, gross office space leasing in January-September rose 97 per cent to 40.6 million square feet across six major cities from 20.6 million square feet in the year-ago period.

The absorption of office space in six cities -- Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune -- might cross 50 million square feet in 2022, it said.

Co-working operators have considerable share in the total office space leasing across these six cities.

Earlier this year, WeWork India Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Karan Virwani had highlighted that the company has become profitable for the first time during January-March 2022 period, with a profit of Rs 25 crore at EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) level.

"Our revenue was Rs 250 crore during the first quarter of this calendar year. We expect Rs 1,000 crore revenue in 2022 calendar year," he had said.

Virwani said the company had posted a revenue of Rs 750 crore in the 2021 calendar year.

Last year, WeWork India had raised Rs 200 crore from investors as equity and debt to grow its business. In June last year, WeWork Global had invested USD 100 million in WeWork India.