91springboard, an early entrant into the co-working space in the country, says it is planning to expand the network to 21 facilities from the present 17 in eight locations.
“We are looking at expanding to all Tier-I cities like Kolkata, Chennai and Pune,” Pranay Gupta, Co-Founder of 91Springboard, told BusinessLine .
He says the co-working space is in nascent stage in the country. “We are all just scratching the surface. There is a huge scope. We would like to be an aspirational brand in the space yet not luxurious for the clients,” he said.
In Hyderabad last week in connection with the launch of its 17th facility and second in the city, he said it’s far cheaper for a company to set up their operations in the facility.
“It works out 30-60 per cent cheaper here for them. You don’t need to spend on a set-up fee, no upfront deposits that they need to pay. They don’t need to spend on security and other common services,” he said.
Besides, they will get access to community activities that the firm organises.
The co-working company, which raised over $20 million so far, has a capacity of 11,000 seats across all the locations. While the Kavuri Hills facility in Hyderabad has 300 seats, the new facility can house 450 seats.
“We don’t have any immediate plans to raise funds,” he said.
Investments
Though it originally wanted to be a fund, 91springboard took about 8-9 months to become a co-working space. “Now, we are a NITI Ayog-supported incubator where we can invest seed money up to ₹12.5 lakh in start-ups. We have committed investments into three start-ups,” he said.
The network consists of about 6,000 members, representing 2,500 teams, which include start-ups, business entrepreneurs, SMEs and freelance professionals.