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Smartworks, India’s leading managed and flexible office space provider to Enterprises, today announced the launch of its new logo as it cements its position at the forefront of the flexible workspace industry in the country.

The launch is in line with Smartworks evolution. With workplaces undergoing transformation, the company aims to transform into a full-fledged business services player offering a gamut of services to leading global enterprises on its upwards journey for a holistic office experience.

Smartworks unveiled details of its new logo following an aggressive growth trajectory and emerging as a market leader in the managed office space segment. Inspired by its pioneering mission, the company has advanced on all fronts, from coworking to tech-enabled managed office spaces, leasing large independent buildings, industry-leading partnerships, and introducing amenities and value-added services for an unparalleled office experience.

The new bold logo maintains the recognisable mark showcasing its vision and growth. The letter ‘T’ represents an isometric view of a building with an elevation showcasing upwards movement. The colour black represents maturity, boldness and exclusivity. The deliberate yet distinct spacing between the letters embodies Smartwork’s vision to maximise space where people of diverse cultures, expertise, and thoughts come and work together.

Neetish Sarda, Founder, Smartworks, said, “We have grown exponentially over the years. With that growth and momentum, we felt it was time for a change that was more in line with where we’re headed. Our new logo reflects future possibilities encompassing the expansion of our focus areas. Even as we move ahead with our new look, our commitment to serving the office needs of clients and providing them with a great experience remains at the core of our identity.”

Following a phase-wise approach, the new logo will be implemented across physical assets, social media platforms and marketing literature.

Smartworks aims to add over 2 Mn Sq. ft. area to its portfolio by the end of this fiscal. Currently, the company has a growing footprint of over 4.2 Mn Sq. ft., presence in 9 cities (Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune) with over 30 locations.

Smartworks is India’s largest provider of agile workspaces, with a footprint of over 4 .2 million Sq. ft. across 31 locations in 9 cities (Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune), catering to more than 400 organisations across large enterprises, SMEs and established startups. Founded in April 2016, Smartworks is redefining the Indian office experience by focusing on design, hospitality, technology and customer delight. Smartworks is also the only Indian agile workspace provider to have become profitable in India. Central to this ambition is the company’s motto, ‘Workspaces that work for you’, with the vision of creating the perfect environment by just not building communities and ensuring their member employees are productive in the workplace.

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Hurun India DEBUTS the Hurun India Future Unicorn List. The objective of the list is to highlight India’s fast growing start-up ecosystem to investors, governments, family offices, aspiring entrepreneurs and the international community. Hurun Research Institute has classified these start-ups as Unicorns (start-ups founded after the year 2000 with a valuation of US$1bn), Gazelles (start-ups that are most likely to go Unicorn in the next 2 years) and Cheetahs (could go Unicorn in the next 4 years). The evaluation is based on regulatory filings, feedback from other entrepreneurs and some of the active India-focused VC funds and angel investors.

India is home to 51 Unicorns, up by 25 in 2021, and 32 Gazelles and 54 Cheetahs.

Record breaking Stats: India added circa 3 Unicorns every month over the last year.

India’s future Unicorns are worth US$36bn, equivalent to one third of Delhi’s GDP at current prices.

The top investors in the Gazelles and Cheetahs in the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021 are Sequoia, followed by Tiger Global with 37 and 18 investments respectively.

11 co-founders are under the age of 30 and 15 above the age of 50

Online retail store Zilingo is the most valuable Gazelle and online furniture platform Pepperfry is the most valuable Cheetah.

Double Boost: 5 start-ups that were identified as Cheetahs at the beginning of the year, “skipped” the Gazelle stage and directly entered the Unicorn club this year.

E-commerce, FinTech and SaaS comprise 49 per cent of the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021

With 31 start-ups, Bengaluru is the start-up capital of India followed by Delhi NCR (18) and Mumbai (13).

India’s Unicorns are now worth US$168bn, more than the GDP of Telangana at current prices.

RateGain, MobiKwik, MedPlus, Fino Paytech and ixigo are preparing for IPO to raise INR 6,840 crore by the end of this year.

E-commerce start-up Spinny’s revenues grew 92 times yoy.

At 25 years of age, the founders of gaming start-up Zupee, Dilsher Singh & Siddhant Saurabh are the youngest in the list.

CoinSwitch Kuber is the only crypto start-up in the list.

Where did they study? Most of the founders of the start-ups featured in Hurun Future Unicorn List graduated/ post-graduated from either IIT Delhi or IIM Ahmedabad.

The average age of founders in the list was 39 years.

Hurun Research Institute today released the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021

(02 September 2021, Mumbai, India) The Hurun Research Institute today released the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021, a ranking of India’s start-ups founded in the 2000s, worth at least US$200mn, not yet listed on a public exchange and most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within 2 years (Gazelles) or 4 years (Cheetahs). The cut-off date was 31 August 2021.

Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021 is a snapshot of India’s start-up ecosystem. This is a list of the most valuable private equity or venture capital-funded companies in India founded after 2000, ranked according to their latest funding round valuation.

To enter the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021, the start-up is required to have a value of US$200mn (INR 1,500 crore).

Anas Rahman Junaid MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India said, “Preparing the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021 has been one of the most daunting tasks, primarily due to the positive hyperactivity in Indian start-up ecosystems. For instance, 5 start-ups that we had as Cheetahs at the beginning of our research, jumped straight to Unicorn valuations. The list has inputs from India’s start-up investor ecosystem including some of the top VC funds and hence could serve as a good source for investors and family offices to understand more some of the most exciting start-ups in the country.”

“2021 also registered start-up IPOs, starting with Nazaara Tech, followed by Zomato and others who have filed including Paytm, Freshworks, Nykaa and so on. IPOs present exit opportunities for investors and encourage more Indian High Networth Individuals to allocate a meaningful portion of their investment into start-ups.”

“India is home to more than 600 million internet users and is expected to have 900 million users by 2025. The adoption of internet in rural areas will further compliment the rise of technology start-ups. Fintech companies operating in mobile payments, insurance, blockchain, stock trading and digital lending will grow further to capitalize the internet penetration.”

“India is the third largest Unicorn ecosystem in the world and the number of Gazelles and Cheetahs in India is growing at an exponential pace. Over the last year, India added circa 3 Unicorns every month.”

“Although the Indian start-up ecosystem is growing, some of the start-ups, who reach a certain scale migrate from India, in search for better regulatory incentives and risk capital availability. For instance, some of the best Enterprise SaaS companies are born in India but “flipped” to the USA. This is a lost opportunity for India and it is important that these start-ups are incentivised to stay back in the country”

“The list further proves that age is not a barrier for value creation in start-ups. Average age of the founders of Hurun India Future Unicorns 2021 is 39. Youngest is 25 years old and the oldest founder is 60 years old.”

“The list also evidences the ballooning investor interest for Indian start-ups. More than 300 investors that include angel investors, corporates, AIFs, family offices and institutional investors have invested into the Cheetahs and Gazelles. Sequoia is the top investor in these start-ups, followed by Tiger Global”

In the single largest flexible office space transaction in the country, managed office space provider Smartworks has picked up 5.6 lakh sq ft space on lease in Pune’s Baner locality taking its portfolio in the city to over 1.4 million sq ft.

The firm is planning to invest Rs 150 crore to set up an 8,500-seat co-working hub in the new office, which is their third centre in Baner and seventh in Pune. Total tenure of this lease is 15 years.

With this, Smartworks’ total portfolio will increase to 31 centres and 70,000 desks across nine cities including Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata.

“It has been a high growth trajectory for us in Pune in the last three years. Our growth has been driven by customer requirements for flexible office spaces that support collaboration, innovation and productivity. This is the largest center in our portfolio and the flex office space segment…With clients eyeing distributed workspaces across locations to adapt to the new normal, we act as a catalyst to fulfil their growth ahead,” said Neetish Sarda, Founder, Smartworks.

The company has leased the space in a commercial project M-AGILE spread across 8 lakh sq ft, of which, Smartworks has leased majority area of 5.6 lakh sq ft. The project is already 40% pre-booked by information technology, IT-enabled services, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and manufacturing companies and is scheduled to be operational in September.

The transaction for this largest flexible office space was facilitated by JLL India.

“Flex space stock in Pune has grown over four times from 0.7 million sq ft in 2017 to 3 million sq ft in 2021 and has always presented a huge growth opportunity…Going forward, we expect the flex space market in Pune to reach nearly 5 million sq ft by 2022, driven by increased demand from large enterprises,” said Sanjay Bajaj, Managing Director – Pune, Logistics and Industrial, India, JLL.

According to estimates, flexible office spaces are expected to grow by an average of around 15-20% per annum over the next three to four years. With the rise of options such as the work-near-home and hybrid model is expected to push the demand and penetration of co-working office spaces across key cities and even tier II locations.

Led by the rising demand from larger enterprises, this segment is likely to move towards 5% of total office stock, pushing its total market size to around 51 million sq ft by 2023.

We are delighted to announce that Smartworks has won the Coworking Technology of the Year award in Realty+ Co-working Summit & Awards 2021.

Commenting on the recognition, our Founders, Neetish Sarda and Harsh Binani, said, This recognition asserts our constant efforts to create workspaces of the future, furthering a unified and enhanced in-office member experience. Adapting to the changing industry trends, Smartworks has been an early-mover to innovate and build enterprise-grade solutions to meet client expectations and provide an exceptional experience.

The future of workplaces will be focussed on activity-settings, that is, a tech integrated flexible workspace that delivers a curated experience while providing the required comfort to the employees. Tech-enabled workspaces will also help companies save on costs and improve operational efficiency.

Our Founder, Neetish Sarda, has been awarded for his exemplary achievement and contribution to the real estate sector at the Realty+ 40under40 e-conclave & Awards 2021, in a virtual ceremony, held on June 26, 2021.

Under his able leadership, Smartworks has emerged as India’s leading and largest flex space provider for Enterprises.

The massive disruption caused by the COVID pandemic, particularly by the shattering second wave, severely impacted commercial office real estate, including the flexible workspaces, though in the short term. But the fall out of pandemic may well prove to be a blessing for the flexible workspace segment, with the expected rise in demand.

Over the last few years, the flexible workspace segment has made significant strides. Per a recent report flexible office space stock is expected to grow 10-15 pc annually from the current 36 million sq ft in the next three years driven by hybrid space demand, expansion across cities, and sustained funding.

The uncertainty led to a slowdown in leasing activity due to regional lockdowns temporarily delaying occupiers’ plans. Yet, considering the fundamentally strong dynamics of office realty and expected improvement in the pandemic situation in the coming months, office realty, especially flexible workspaces, will show resilience. Despite the apprehensions of office space losing ground given the rising trend of work from home (WFH), the work from the office will coexist with WFH. Office realty will not lose its importance as real estate forms an important asset for the companies from their corporate brand image perspective. Rather, post-pandemic, corporates will be increasingly looking at revitalising their brand.

As part of their strategy to ensure seamless working, businesses will continue to adapt to the fluid nature of work and the evolving work models with flexibility at the core. They will remodel their real estate with improved services and amenities, particularly sustainability and employee well-being. Also, because of the pandemic setback focusing on cost reduction and engaging workspaces providing a dynamic environment, the companies will be increasingly opting for flexible workspaces. Many offices that have terminated their leases will come back to lease flex spaces and managed offices. Especially so, because of the distributive workforce given the hybrid work model and rise in gig workers, businesses will be looking for flexible workspaces with shorter tenured leases.

As we advance, we will see distinct trends in the workspace. Commercial space developers will be keeping flexible workspaces as part of their overall commercial office development. On the other hand, occupiers will take to the hub and spoke model with multiple distributive satellite offices in smaller towns to ensure business continuity and productivity with cost optimisation. The companies will be going in for an asset-light model as part of their real estate portfolio planning. They will go for cost-effective, efficient, and flexible workspaces for lower Capex, flexible leases and customised offerings. The preference will be for office spaces with superior property management and tenant services with a more collaborative and partnership-oriented relationship between tenants and owners. We will also be witnessing the trend of lock-in seats compared to square feet lock-in.

There will be several future growth drivers for flexible workspaces. A major demand booster will come from the growth of IT, BPM, engineering and manufacturing sectors. In addition, the foreseen expansion by technology companies because of the rising demand for AI, robotics, and machine learning will also push flexible working space.

With a distributed workforce, hybrid work taking precedence and hub and spoke models emerging as the latest trend, managed offices are expected to gain the most. While the work plans remain fluid, companies continue to reassess their real estate needs. They are diversifying operational risks by distributing work at more than one location, offering maximum flexibility to its employees. These are customised office spaces taking care of an enterprise’s requirements of office design, fit-outs, amenities and overall operations, so, it can focus on its core business.

Managed office spaces offer tailor-made office solutions according to the companies’ business needs, budget, and branding. These workspaces provide a digitally-enabled work environment, top Grade shared common areas, value-added services and a plethora of amenities. With low or zero upfront Capex, flex spaces are far more structured in terms of threshold limit for space and lease commitment, offering an opportunity to enterprises to scale up.

COVID-19 has put the focus on flexible workplace strategy more than ever. What once used to be an offbeat option has now become mainstream. With enterprises warming up and embracing the concept, managed office spaces is set to drive the post-pandemic flexible workspace market in the future.

Smartworks has leased a 5.6 lakh sq ft area in Pune, and invested around Rs 150 crore to set up a new centre as part of its strategy to expand the business amid rising demand.

Managed office space provider Smartworks has leased a 5.6 lakh sq ft area in Pune, and invested around Rs 150 crore to set up a new centre as part of its strategy to expand the business amid rising demand for flexible workspaces.

Real estate consultant JLL India helped Smartworks in taking this large office space on lease in a premium commercial property ‘M-AGILE’ at Baner in Pune.

Noida-based Smartworks said in a statement that it has taken on a lease 5.6 lakh sq ft office space from a developer to set up its seventh centre in Pune.

Smartworks and JLL India have termed the leasing deal of 5.6 lakh sq ft as the “biggest” in the flexible office space segment.

The new centre, with a capacity of over 8,500 desks, has been set up with an investment of around Rs 150 crore, Smartworks said.

The new coworking centre will become operational in September. Around 40 per cent area has already been given on lease to corporate clients.

Smartworks founder Neetish Sarda said, “It has been a high growth trajectory for us in Pune in the last three years. Our growth has been driven by customer requirements for flexible office spaces that support collaboration, innovation and productivity”.

He said this new centre is the largest in the company’s portfolio and the flex office space segment.

Sarda said the company’s focus is not just to offer workspaces to corporate clients but a standardised and engaging office experience with value-added services and benefits in a campus-like infrastructure.

“Our digitally-enabled spaces provide them with a completely managed ecosystem with state-of-the-art amenities, alliances, community-building events, and networking opportunities,” he added.

With the seven centres in Pune, Smartworks now has a total footprint of about 1.4 million square feet and over 25,000 seats.

Overall, Smartworks has 31 centres, comprising over 4.2 million square feet area and more than 70,000 seats, in nine cities — Delhi, Noida, Gururgram, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata.

“We are excited to have facilitated the biggest deal to date for a flexible office space in India,” said Sanjay Bajaj, Managing Director – Pune, Logistics and Industrial, India, JLL.

Flexible space stock has grown in the Pune City by over four times from 0.7 million sq ft in 2017 to 3 million sq ft in 2021, he added.