BHIVE Workspace raises $1.2M from Blume Ventures and HNIs

Co-working and shared office space provider BHIVE Workspace has raised $1.2 million in a fresh round of funding led by Blume Ventures with the participation of actor-director Ramesh Aravind, Meera Reddy, MD of SKCL and other high net-worth individuals.

The fund will be utilised to fuel its pan-India and international expansion of co-working spaces. Last year, the co-working space has raised $ one million from Blume Ventures and Raghunandan G, Founder, TaxiForSure; Rajesh Rai, Venture Capitalist; Arihant Patni, MD, Hive Technologies; Sanjay Mirchandani, Owner, Mirchandani Group; Arun Narayan, Director, UK India Business Council; among others.

"In the last two years, we've expanded our co-working space rapidly and currently have 10 centres within Bangalore. We want to leverage our expertise to benefit more companies and startups," said Shesh Rao Paplikar, Co-Founder and CEO, BHIVE Workspace, “We are about to cross Rs 12 crore annual revenue run rate, and based on our current pipeline, we expect it to grow to Rs 100 crore in a year from now,” he added.

BHIVE Workspace has expanded to over 100,000 square feet of office space with 10 centres across Bangalore. With its focus on unit economics, BHIVE claimed to be profitable with all of its current centres. Founded by ex-Bloomberg executive Shesh Rao Paplikar in 2014, BHIVE has organised over 500 bespoke events along with more than 12,000 startup enthusiasts.

“As a commercial real-estate developer, I see that co-working is going to disrupt the traditional office space business. Considering the headway BHIVE has already made and the quality of their team, I am confident that BHIVE will be lead the co-working revolution in India.” said Meera Reddy, MD of SKCL, one of the top developers in Chennai.

BHIVE now plans to step up the level of hospitality and technology-enabled services at its centres. One of the key innovations by BHIVE has been its Internet technology, BuzzNet, which they said has attained the reputation of being the most reliable workspace internet in the country. The company is also integrating IoT and AI into its workspace technology to enhance the member experience.

The culture and effectiveness of sharing the workspace has given a fillip to the market for co-working spaces by contributing to a flourishing startup ecosystem. If startups are looking for more affordable and better workspace, they have several options: Mumbai-based Bombay Connect (daily pricing of Rs 500, and monthly rent of Rs 3,000), Bengaluru-based BHIVE  (daily rate of Rs 305, and monthly for Rs 5,000), Jaipur-based Wired Hub (monthly rate of Rs 3,500), Bengaluru-based CoWrks (monthly rental starting at Rs 10,499) and Bengaluru-based Instaoffice (daily rate starting at Rs 350 and Rs 4,000 for a fortnight).

Website: BHIVE