IndiQube’s recipe to make its business profitable was simple: to make the workplace employee-centric and to work with a domestic model built for India’s large real estate market, shared Rishi Das and Meghna Agarwal, co-founders of the co-working company, at TechSparks 2023.
Speaking to YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma in a fireside chat, Agarwal said, “The whole idea was that employee needs have to be met; otherwise [they] are working in their silos. So, for us, things like subsidised food, safe transport or parking lots were important. Those are the services that we made sure that we were focused on.”
In FY22, IndiQube’s operating revenue climbed 19% to Rs 351 crore, while the company continued to be EBITDA-positive, according to reports. Earlier this year, Agarwal told YourStory that the company made $100 million in revenue over the past 6-7 years since its inception in 2015.
India being a large market for real estate also aided them, Das said at TechSparks, adding that Bengaluru absorbed more real estate than even Shanghai.
IndiQube currently offers co-working spaces in 11 Indian cities, including Tier II centres like Kochi, Madurai, and Jaipur. A major part of its business comes from Bengaluru, with around 60 locations in the city.
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IndiQube co-founders in conversation with Shradha Sharma at TechSparks 2023
” align=”center”> IndiQube co-founders in conversation with Shradha Sharma at TechSparks 2023
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Das also said that one cannot be focused only on building spaces in five-star buildings. “There’s a huge unorganised market where we picked up buildings, with some of them as old as 40 years,” he said, adding “that it is very important to work with what already exists”.
He also added that IndiQube avoided anything where the unit economics was not looking good. The company avoided freebies, kept doing iterations, and was conservative on cash, he shared.
Last year, the Bengaluru-headquartered company raised $30 million in funding from WestBridge Capital, angel investor Ashish Gupta, and promoters. According to reports, IndiQube is also planning to raise a $75 million round over a 12-month period to expand its operations.
According to the latest research report by IndiQube-CRE Matrix, the flexible workspace market in India is expected to reach 126 million square feet by 2027, from its current size of 46.7 million. This represents a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22% in a five-year time frame, making the future rather promising for the likes of IndiQube.
Edited by Sohini Mitter
