Just a day after WeWork announced to open new co-working offices across India in two months, the co-working space provider giant’s India arm WeWork India, has planned to raise $200 million (approx INR 1,419 crore) from investors to fund its growth, reported Mint.
The firm will raise $200 million through a combination of equity and structured debt, having raised around INR 500 crore of debt recently, said top company executives.
Karan Virwani, chief WeWork executive officer, WeWork India said that the focus has been to grow the business profitably. The firm, which operates around 45,000 desks across cities, sold 10,000 desks in the September quarter alone. It aims to reach the 100,000 desk milestone by 2020-end.
A day ago, WeWork has annouced that it will open co-working spaces across India and presently, the company is also facing tough feud with SoftBank.
For details: WeWork plans to open new co-working spaces pan India amid ongoing feud with SoftBank
WeWork is an American company, founded by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey in 2010. The company provides shared workspaces for technology startup subculture communities, and services for entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups, small businesses and large enterprises.
At present, WeWork has 26 coworking centres in India with a total capacity 39,000 seats spread over three million sq ft area. It has nine centres each in Bengaluru and Mumbai, while another five in Gurugram, Haryana.
Co-working firms in India have largely been self-funded, with some external investments, creating 350-400 operators of different sizes offering products at varying price points in India. The next phase of growth and survival will depend on the capital they raise, operational efficiency and investor confidence.
Similar to WeWork, other co-working startups in India include GoWork, OYO Workspaces, Awfis, 91Springboard, among many more.