Swanky work spaces, beer on tap: WeWork on expansion drive in India

WeWork India currently has 350 to 400 big and small companies operating from its space

High-speed internet connectivity, swanky work spaces ranging from a single desk to a whole office and beer on tap, global shared office space giant WeWork is on an expansion drive in India. Hoping to replicate the success of its foreign partner, WeWork India, a joint venture between global co-working space giant WeWork and the Embassy Group, has embarked on this expansion drive.

According to Ryan Bennett, General Manager at WeWork, India, the global team as well as its Indian arm is hoping to replicate the success in cities, including London and New York, where it has 30 and 50 such office spaces, respectively.

WeWork India, which is already present in Bengaluru and Mumbai, recently opened a 105,000 square foot space in the Delhi-NCR region. The company plans to open two more office spaces in these cities in the next few weeks. It also plans to foray into Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai by next year. “When we look at over the next 12 month to 36 months, there is no reason that each of our cities, including Delhi NCR, Mumbai or Bengaluru, should not be where New York is right now. At least 50 per location, as there is no reason we would not be able to achieve or even surpass that number,” said Bennett.

At present, companies, including Amazon, Truecaller and GoDaddy, operate from WeWork’s offices. WeWork India currently has over 350 to 400 big and small companies operating from its space.

Founded in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey in New York, WeWork employs more than 4,400 globally. It currently has 230 offices in 71 cities and 21 countries around the world. More than 20,000 companies use WeWork’s office spaces, including Dell, KPMG, GE, Microsoft and Samsung.

The company is working on its next big plan of co-living spaces, though it claims the rollout is a few quarters away. 

“Yes we have all of these other businesses, which are in different stages of their product cycles. We are getti
ng there with co-living. However, we want to make sure that it can be rolled out in any market like we do with WeWork, keeping in mind cost-efficiency and a revenue model that works,” said Karan Virwani, general manager at WeWork, India.