WeWork India, a unit of the US-listed entity WeWork, is reportedly looking to raise $300 million to expand operations in India as companies and employees are starting to come back to work and are looking for office space.
Reported by The Economic Times, WeWork India is talking to Cerberus Capital, KKR & Co. and other private equity funds to raise the money, and hopes to close the round by the end of the year. “The demand has increased for quality work spaces. People have started moving back to offices and this is creating more opportunities for established players like WeWork,” a source told ET.
Currently, WeWork India operates in the five key cities of Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. It runs 40 co-working spaces encompassing more than 64,000 desks across over 5 million square feet of offices cumulatively. It is already in the process of adding another 25,000 desks by the end of the year.
WeWork entered India into a partnership with the Embassy Group to enter the country in 2017. Currently, the Embassy Group retains 100 percent rights over WeWork India, as an independent entity with the right to execute WeCo’s business in the country.
The new funds will be used to expand operations in new destinations and build technology hubs across the country. WeWork Global invested $100 million in WeWork India last year, indicating their continued faith in the local unit’s plans.
