Homegrown co-working firm Smartworks to raise $35M growth fund
Managing Director Neetish Sarda said the three-year-old Noida-based company is also eyeing a two-fold increase in revenue for the fiscal to Rs 320 crore.
Homegrown shared office space provider Smartworks plans to raise $35-40 million in a mix of debt and equity to fund its plans to nearly double the portfolio to 5 million sq ft by March, a top company official has said.
The three-year-old Noida-based company is also eyeing a two-fold increase in revenue for the fiscal to Rs 320 crore, managing director Neetish Sarda told PTI.
From left to right: Harsh Binani and Neetish Sarda, co-founders, Smartworks
"With 2.8 million sqft, 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 sqft 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.
"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," he said.
Last year, 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 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 sqft size," he said.
He said the company will continue to focus on enterprises or MNCs as they offer better margins.
It competes with Wework, Regus, Cowrks, Awfis, Oyo Workspace, Goodworks, Gowork, Skootr, Indiuube, Avanta, 91 Springboard, Creator's Gurukul, Gohive, Oneculture, Plus Offices and Spring House Coworking among others.
Over the weekend, yet another foreign company entered the already cluttered co-working space with the entry of Thailand's realty major MQDC, which opened its first centre -- Whizdom Club--in Greater Kailash-II in south Delhi in a 22,000 sq ft area leased out from DLF and offers 400 seats.
(Edited by Megha Reddy)
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