BHIVE Workspace raises $1M funding led by Blume Ventures
Bangalore-based co-working space BHIVE Workspace, has raised $1 million in funding led by Blume Ventures. With this funding, BHIVE plans to expand its base in Bengaluru and establish a presence in other cities as well. The fresh capital will also be used to attract top talent and build technology that will further enhance customer experience in this segment.
Shesh Palikar, CEO and Co-Founder at BHIVE Workspace said,
We aim to have over 2 million square feet of office space under BHIVE management across 6 major Indian cities over the next 2 years.
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This is the second round of funding in the venture. Earlier in February 2015, the company raised funding from Raghunandan G, Founder, TaxiForSure; Rajesh Rai, Venture Capitalist; Arihant Patni, Managing Director, Hive Technologies; Sanjay Mirchandani, Owner, Mirchandani Group; Arun Narayan, Director, UK India Business Council; and others.
Launched in November 2014, BHIVE provides a fully equipped workspace with 24x7 access. It claims to cater to over 150+ ventures in Bengaluru. Currently operational in four locations with over 800 active members, the company claims that its flagship center is currently running at 100% occupancy rates.
On B2B side, it claims to be a very transparent, professionally managed company that partners with landlords and ensures them a steady and predictable income.
Karthik Reddy, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Blume Ventures and an investor in BHIVE believes that the co-working space represents a disruption in commercial real estate that's now brewing in India and that they are already fine-tuning a template that can scale across all of the rapidly growing ecosystem in the country.
He mentioned that when BHIVE achieved 100% occupancy in their largest space, he knew that they were onto understanding the dynamics and pricing policies that could make co-working spaces/shared spaces a success.
In the co-working space segment, 91springboard, Awfis Space, Stirring Minds, AltF Co-working, Co. Lab. Orate among others, are some of the platforms in this segment. Besides, Sneed, Breathing Room and MyCuteOffice are different office space aggregators.
According to YourStory Research, there are over 20,000 startups in the country and the number is counting. The top five startup cities (in descending order) are Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad with a total number of 16,480 startups.
The sheer number has also produced a huge demand of office working spaces in these cities. To cater the market, based on the idea of shared economy, these cities have witnessed the mushrooming of co-working spaces.
Considering the needs of startups – building network, cheap and affordable rent and flocked by talents – the co-working office spaces offer a win-win situation.