Workspace rental platform Qdesq raises angel funding
Delhi-based workspace rental platform Qdesq has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in an angel round from investor consortium led by Anuraag Jaipuria (Director, Jai Drinks Pvt Ltd), Ruchirans Jaipuria (Director, Jaipuria Beverage and Food Pvt ltd) and Rishi Kajaria (Joint MD, Kajaria Ceremics Ltd.).
Existing investors Dheeraj Jain (Partner, Redcliffe Capital), serial entrepreneurs and avid angel investors Ankush Nijhawan, Gaurav Bhatnagar and Manish Dhingra also participated in the round.
The platform, which is currently operational in Delhi-NCR region, will use the funds to expand its presence in other cities and also invest in marketing initiatives as well as beef up its technology.
Qdesq, a ready-to-move-in workspace brand that renders an office occupancy experience with no setup cost, allows discovery, lead tracking, Know Your Customer (KYC) and screening exchange, inspection management, Management Information System (MIS) on booking, post-booking rent management and data analysis, thus making the interface occupant and venue manager-friendly, facilitates easy bookings and provides deep insights into workspace with pre and post-booking interface.
Founded in December 2015 by Paras Arora and Lavesh Bhandari, Qdesq aggregates workspaces as per predefined standards and specifications. The inventory consist of managed workspaces - verified third-party venues as per partnership programme with these space providers to acquire unused inventory.
“We are currently live with 216 venues across Delhi NCR in both the formats – short occupancy (meeting rooms, workspace for a day and Qcafe) as well as long occupancy (workspace on monthly basis). With a current growth rate of 60 percent month-on-month on revenue side, 20-25 Qdesq-verified venues are appended to the list on supply side every month. We aim to have 200 monthly bookings in on-demand business and 500 work desk under ongoing monthly occupation anniversary in December this year,” said Paras.
In January 2016, Qdesq raised seed capital from a group of investors led by Dheeraj Jain of Redcliffe Capital, Jagdish Kumar (former Regional Director-APAC, DuPont), Bharat Gupta, Ankush Saigal and Praveen Saini.
Market scenario
The other significant player in this segment is Bengaluru-based BHIVE workspace which recently raised $1 million in funding led by Blume Ventures. The other players who provides co-working space are 91springboard, Awfis Space, Stirring Minds, AltF Co-working, Co. Lab. Orate amongst others.
With the increasing count of startups and the need for workspace, this segment has recently seen a number of entrants. A few platforms are also providing space based on shared economy, which is a win-win situation for both parties. At the end of the day, these platforms are solving a crucial need of startups'—infrastructure with affordability.