With an eye to increase its portfolio by two times to 5 million sq ft by March 2020, Smartworks has been looking to raise $35- 40 million (approx ₹251 – 287 crore) in a mix of debt and equity.
The Noida-based, shared office space provider platform Smartworks, is also aiming a two-fold increase in revenue for the fiscal to ₹320 crore.
“With 2.8 million sq ft, we are the second largest after the multinational Wework, which has around 3 million of space under it portfolio. We now plan to increase the portfolio to 5 million sq ft by the end of this fiscal year for which we will be investing close to $35-40 million, which will be mopped as equity and debt,” Neetish Sarda, co-founder and managing director at Smartworks, said.
Smartworks was founded by Harsh Binani and Neetish Sarda in 2016. The platform offers state-of-the-art serviced workspace solutions for individuals and businesses that want the work environments without committing themselves to long-term leases or contracts.
As per its website, Smartworks aims to provide entrepreneurs with all the flexibility that they need to succeed in the competitive business environment of today. Moreover, being serviced and completely customizable, these workspaces help businesses minimize their overhead expenses.
“Access to funds from banks and institutions like NBFCs is easy. A lot of private equity investors are also approaching us and we are evaluating them, but we cannot disclose more that at this moment,” Sarda added.
Earlier in 2018, the company closed with revenue of about Rs 110 crore with a profit margin of around 10 percent.
“Our pan-India rentals on average are about Rs 10,000 a seat. We are confident of closing this fiscal with Rs 320 crore topline and profit margin of 20-30 percent,” Sarda further said.
The company, which is currently present in nine cities including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune among others, is also planning to expand into small towns.
“Our immediate focus is consolidating in these nine cities. Then we will also enter one or two small towns but that is not going to be of significant scale. We will enter with 20,000-40,000 sq ft size,” he stated.
Some of the major ace player in the co-working space provider business include WeWork, Regus, Cowrks, Awfis, Oyo Workspace, Gowork, and many more.