Smartworks aims 3-fold jump in FY23 revenue to Rs 1,000 cr on rising demand for flexible workspace

New Delhi: Flexible workspace operator Smartworks is expecting nearly three-fold jump in its revenue this fiscal to Rs 1,000 crore on rising demand of managed office space from big companies, its founder Neetish Sarda said.

Smartworks, which was founded in April 2016 by Neetish Sarda and Harsh Binani, currently has a portfolio of more than 7 million square feet across 38 locations in 11 cities. Out of this, 6 million square feet are already operational.

The Noida-based firm recently announced that it has taken on lease 7 lakh square feet of office space, comprising over 9,000 desks, in Bengaluru, marking as a single largest flexible office space transaction in India.

"We posted a revenue of about Rs 350 crore in the 2021-22 financial year. In this fiscal, we are targeting a revenue of Rs 1,000 crore. Revenue worth Rs 700 crore has already been signed up," Sarda told PTI.

He said there is a strong demand for flexible office space, especially from large corporates.

Co-working operators, which includes those providing managed office space, take on lease spaces from real estate developers and then further sub-lease them to enterprises as well as individuals.

On expansion, Sarda said the company intends to increase its portfolio to 10 million square feet by the end of this fiscal, of which 8.5 million square feet should be operational.

Currently, the company has more than 80 per cent enterprise clients in its portfolio.

In 2019, Smartworks had raised USD 25 million from Singapore's Keppel Land Ltd to fund its expansion plan.

The company has presence in Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Indore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune. It plans to expand operations in more cities.

Smartworks caters to more than 400 organisations across Fortune 500 companies, large enterprises, SMEs and established unicorns/startups.

As per the Cushman & Wakefield data, the leasing of flexible workspace by corporates rose 59 per cent in April-June to 28,167 desks across the top eight cities as they are embracing managed office space amid uncertainties.

Enterprises leased 17,691 seats in co-working centres in the April-June quarter of the last year across eight major cities -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.

In its latest report, Colliers India said that the total gross office leasing has risen to 27.5 million square feet in the first six months of this year from 10.3 million square feet in the year-ago period. Of this, the share of leasing by flexible workspace operators stood at 13 per cent.