Awfis to raise $15-20 mn funding for future growth

The company is testing potential of mobile office concept

Awfis, a co-working space major in the country, is looking at raising around $15-20 million funds by the end of the year to support its growth plans in the country. The company has started pilot project of a mobile office, a concept in which various types of vehicles would be converted into offices, for those who need to work on the go.

The company which has earlier seed money of $10 million, in which entrepreneur Radha Kapoor has also invested, has started the new process to raise the fresh round of funding, said Amit Ramani, CEO and Founder of AWFIS Space Solutions.

It currently has around 3,000 seats across 12 centres in three cities and it would be adding another 3,000 seats by November, which would increase its total capacity to 6,000 seats in five cities in 20 centres by the time. While the seed funding would take the company upto this target, it would require fresh funding to go forward, he said.

"We have committed money of $10 million and invested $6 million of it already. This will get us to 6,000 seats. We will raise another $15-20 million by the end of the year. The company has started the process to raise the funds," said Ramani.

By March 2017, the company expects to have 10,000 seats in seven cities making it one of the biggest players in the just-in-time office space booking.

The mobile office concept, which it expects to gear up with the traffic congession in the cities and the search for companies to increase productivity, would help it to address the future market in the country. It is piloting with a vehicle in NCR region and after 30-60 days of study, it would be offered to its customers in other regions where it has presence in.

He said that the co-working office space in the country would be currently around 10,000 seats and it would go to 25,000-30,000 seats by 2017. There are no authentic reports on the sector in the country. He said that according to his estimates, there is a potential of this space growing to 2-3 lakh seats in three years' time.