Co-working spaces have always been an eluding business model for many. Nevertheless, indigenous startups in this segment are attempting to find out the gold on the back of fledgeling startup culture in this country. One such startup is Y Combinator graduated Innov8 Inc.
The revenue of Delhi-based co-working platform has increased by 5.3X in FY17 while its losses shot up by 157X during the same period. According to RoC filings, Innov8 has posted a revenue of Rs 1.95 crore in FY17 as compared to Rs 36.25 lakh in the previous fiscal.
Meanwhile, the company’s losses jumped to Rs 2.59 crore in FY17 from Rs 1.64 lakh in the preceding fiscal. The total expense also increased to Rs 4.53 crore during the financial year 2016-17 from Rs 38.15 lakh in FY16.
Importantly, expenses for rental charges* stood at Rs 1.27 crore in FY17 as compared to Rs 21 lakh in the previous fiscal.
Currently, Innov8 operates about a dozen co-working hubs across cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, and Chandigarh. So far, it had raised an undisclosed sum from blue-chip angels such as Girish Mathrubootham, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Rajan Anandan, Kunal Shah, and many others.
Innov8 claims to have a 3,000 member strong community comprising of startups and individuals across sectors, industries, and locations. It charges in the range of $124 (Rs 7,999) for a hot desk to $202 (Rs 12,999) for a dedicated desk on a monthly basis.
The Shailesh Gupta led company is yet to file financials for FY18.
A quick look at co-working spaces
Globally, WeWork is the largest platform in the co-working space, it has attracted about $9 billion in risk capital from the likes of SoftBank and others.
Ever since its launch in July last year, WeWork has been giving fierce competition to a slew of co-working companies including BHive, Innov8, Awfis, 91Springboard, and several others.
So far, co-working spaces in India have secured about $33.8 million across 17 deals, as per venture capital intelligence data platform Tracxn. It lists a total of 139 co-working spaces, out of which four have already shut down.
In April 2017, Sequoia had led a $20 million mega-round in Awfis. This is the biggest funding round in this space in India.
*Update: The company had reached out to Entrackr saying Rs 1.27 crore is actually consolidated rental cost, not postage and courier expense.
