[Funding alert] Smartworks raises Series A round of $25M from Keppel Land
Started by Neetish Sarda and Harsh Binani in April 2016, the startup was bootstrapped so far and turned profitable in the second year of its operations.
![[Funding alert] Smartworks raises Series A round of $25M from Keppel Land](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/70651a302d6d11e9aa979329348d4c3e/Imageirkf1572513964779jpg?mode=crop&crop=faces&ar=2%3A1&format=auto&w=1920&q=75)
Homegrown shared office space provider Smartworks has raised funding of $25 million (Rs 170 crore approximately) from Singapore's Keppel Land Limited (Keppel Land) in Series A round. Started by Neetish Sarda and Harsh Binani in April 2016, the company was bootstrapped so far, and turned profitable in the second year of its operations.
Neetish Sarda and Harsh Binani, co-founders of Smartworks
Neetish stated that Smartworks caters to large spaces unlike most coworking players in India who are catering to smaller teams and are located in smaller spaces.
Its centres currently cater to over 400 organisations, comprising mainly large enterprises and high-growth startups such as Amazon Web Services, Bacardi Limited, DHL, Ernst & Young, Hitachi, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, Microsoft Corporation, Petronash, Red Hat, Ricoh and Samsung.
Over the next five years, Smartworks plans to grow its footprint to 20 million sqft and provide office solutions for over 200,000 working professionals.
Neetish told YourStory that the company is aiming 40 centres in the next 12-18 months, and will penetrate existing geographies with smaller centres in Tier II cities such as Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar, Ahmedabad, etc.
Smartworks has 23 operational centres across nine major Indian cities, namely, Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune offering a total of about 43,000 workstations spread over 2.3 million sqft. The company plans to cover five million sqft in the next 15-18 months.
Neetish said, “We are excited to continue driving our exponential growth in our mission to deliver lasting and affordable office experiences with state-of-the-art office infrastructure and recreational facilities for India’s leading enterprises in partnership with Keppel Land.
“The flexible space segment in India has been growing rapidly, and Smartworks has been an active participant in this business over the past three years, with a large and widespread network across nine cities. Smartworks is also already cash flow-positive and is profitable at a consolidated level. With this strategic investment by Keppel Land, we will be able to scale up even more rapidly across India’s Tier I and II cities and further invest in building up our next generation product, improving client experiences, as well as boosting our talent and technology.”
Keppel Land is the property arm of Keppel Corporation, and is geographically diversified in Asia, with Singapore, China, and Vietnam as its key markets, while it continues to scale up in other markets such as Indonesia and India.
Tan Swee Yiow, CEO of Keppel Land, said, “Smartworks’ innovative business model, coupled with its strong knowledge of the Indian enterprise office segment and execution abilities, is highly scalable and relevant, particularly in India’s growing market for commercial office spaces. This investment allows Keppel Land to enter one of the world’s fastest-growing flexible office markets, opening doors for further growth through this collaboration.
(Edited by Evelyn Ratnakumar)
