WeWork to more than double its capacity in India by year end

Co-working space WeWork plans to more than double its capacity in India to 35,000 desks by the end of the year, the company's Chief WeWork Officer Ryan Bennett told Business Today. New York-based WeWork, which has presence in 75 cities across the globe, currently has 12,000 desks in Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bangalore in India at nine locations.  

Most of the growth is fuelled by its focus on large enterprises. In the first five years, most of its client base comprised of start-ups and freelancers. Now, across their nine locations in India, 50% of its 10,000 members are large enterprises. At WeWork Galaxy in Bangalore, it is as high as 75%, says Bennett. Globally, big corporates constitute 25% of their member base. He adds: "Larger companies use their space for better 'workspace efficiency' and the pay-as-you-use model that gives them the flexibility to increase or decrease workforce as per the market dynamics without having to worry about the lock-in period of the lease usually at five-years." Also, as recruiting and retaining talent becomes difficult, companies want to offer workspaces to employees that inspire them. Bigwigs such as Truecaller, GoDaddy, Twitter, Vice Media, Jaguar Land Rover operate out of WeWork in India.

WeWork has recently announced an enterprise solution 'Powered by We' which is essentially offering office space as a service wherein its team will design and manage the workspace for the company, and organise events for its employees. Employees of member companies will also be able to access facilities available to all WeWork members -- one of them is  access to WeWork locations across the world. He shares the instance of a US-based travel company, which after getting its workspace redesigned by WeWork could move its employees from three floors to two, maximising workspace utilisation and thus saving rent of an entire floor.

The company claims to have 90% occupancy in all its locations.