The co-working space giant WeWork has officially opened its second center in India with the unveiling of “WeWork BKC” in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), one of the main economic hubs of the financial city Mumbai. This comes barely two months after WeWork raised the curtains over its first ever indian center in Bengaluru city.
WeWork BKC is spread across whopping 1.9 Lakh sq. ft and boosts a seating capacity of more than 1900 people. The look and feel of the center is reportedly on par with the international design and aesthetic standards. Evidently, the New York based company worked really hard along with the several local artists for creating a desirable aesthetic feel.
Commenting on the new center, Karan Virwani, Director – WeWork (India) said that the co-working industry is finding lot of acceptance among the urban millennials owing to its cost effectiveness and convenience. He claimed that through these two new centers WeWork is not only helping in building co-working spaces, but also developing entrepreneurial spirit in India.
Established in 2010, WeWork over the span of seven years has emerged as one of the most renowned co-working space providers in the world. It boosts offices in around 190 locations spread across different parts of the globe, which are today home to about 450 companies including big names like Microsoft, Samsung and Bacardi.
Its humongous operational success has meant that this startup company never had to struggle in raising funds. In fact, its latest funding happened just last month, with Japanese investment giant SoftBank investing nearly $4.4 Bn. This success also had a favorable impact on its valuation, with the firm being currently valued at whopping $20 billion.
India’s fast growing co-working industry
WeWork’s entry into India is yet another validation of India’s untapped and fast growing co-working industry. The unprecedented rise of startup companies and sporadic growth of freelance professionals is apparently fuelling this new age industry. The main purpose of the co-working providers is not only to provide affordable working space, but also a much needed platform for networking, mentoring and also fund raising.
Some of the established names in India’s co-working industry includes 91Springboard, Regus Business Centers, Innov8 and iKeva.