Awfis: Changing the Working Culture of India

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The coworking industry in India is at its peak and is slated to transform into a mainstream segment. By the end of 2024, there are expected to be around 41,975 coworking spaces worldwide. Coworking is a new, innovative way of working, where different companies share the same space and work together.

Awfis Space Solutions offers coworking space & shared office space for rent along with affordable facilities.

But Mr. Amit Ramani found a way to get back in the field with innovative and affordable solutions. The launch of 'Awfis@Home', will help provide physical and IT infrastructure for work from home at INR 2,500 monthly subscription fee.

We interviewed Awfis owner/founder Mr. Amit Ramani to learn more about the coworking industry in India and the successful startup journey of Awfis.

Awfis - Company Details

About Awfis
Awfis - Industry
Awfis - Startup Story | How was Awfis Started?
Awfis - Founders and Team
Awfis - Shareholding
Awfis - Name, Tagline and Logo
Awfis - Business Model
Awfis - Revenue Model
Awfis - User Acquisition
Awfis - Funding and Investors
Awfis - Growth / Revenue
Awfis - Partnership and Tie-Ups
Awfis - IPO
Awfis - Future Plan

About Awfis

Awfis (Awfis Space Solutions Private Limited) has been able to build a niche for itself within the ever-evolving coworking segment, largely owing to its unceasing commitment to providing high-grade workspaces and amenities at an affordable cost. It understands India’s market and its key challenges from a commercial real estate perspective. The company has been able to successfully cater to the client base by providing them with an integrated workspace solution and a hassle-free experience. Awfis also offers a Virtual Office solution that helps you create a professional image for your business without booking an actual physical space. Besides, Awfis Mobility Solutions, lets one work from anywhere.

"We see ourselves as our client's partners, not mere service providers. We have built a best-in-class mobile app that helps book workspaces & meeting rooms on ‘Just-in-time’ basis. We also have a range of ‘Mobility Solution’ products for today’s work-on-the-go population along with our newly launched product ‘Awfis Enterprise Solutions’ that caters to SMEs and mid & large sized corporates helping them set up their head offices & satellite offices with us" Amit Ramani says explaining Awfis' products

The core belief of Awfis Space Solutions is to bridge the existing Commercial Real Estate (CRE) gap in India by transforming commercial assets into Grade A workspaces and making them accessible at affordable prices. The aim is to provide a commercially viable solution to the workforce of India owing to the highly price-sensitive and extremely rational Indian consumer. The company strongly believes that with their unique bouquet of products and services, they have been able to provide a feasible solution to Indian businesses, thereby creating an enriching work experience.

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Awfis - Industry

India's coworking industry is growing fast, with the market expected to reach $2.84 billion by 2030. This growth is driven by several factors, including changing work landscape, cost-effective, collaborative environment, and scalability.

The coworking space market in India has grown to over 13 million square feet and is still expanding. It’s growing not only in big cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai but also in smaller tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

Awfis - Startup Story | How was Awfis Started?

Coworking as a segment has been prevalent in the US for the last 10-15 years where the founder, Amit Ramani, had prior professional experience.

The idea to launch Awfis and re-conceptualize the co-working segment in India struck him when he witnessed the status of the majority of the commercial spaces here. Extremely disorganized, a complete lack of transparency, and the absence of a conducive environment for employees to work in, it led him to believe that co-working was the perfect solution for India’s market and to pave the way forward for a highly flexible workforce of our country.

Awfis - Founders and Team

Amit Ramani is the founder and CEO of Awfis.

Amit has been a serial entrepreneur with 18 years of experience with a focus on building sustainable businesses that solve real-world problems. Before Awfis, he served as the Founder and Managing Director of NELSON Asia, a company focused on providing design & build solutions to global & Indian multinationals. Amit’s extensive experience in strategic planning, design management, and workplace & business process improvement has allowed him to work in different leadership positions as well as a speaker and guest author for reputed platforms.

• Mr. Amit Ramani is a member of the Young President's Organization (YPO) Delhi Chapter which is a group of top 200 business leaders and owners in the community.
• He has been an active member of the International Facilities Management Association CoreNet for eight years and serves on the board for the latter’s Charlotte Chapter.
• His work has been published in the Journal of Corporate Real Estate and he has been a frequent speaker at industry forums such as CoreNet Global Summit on topics ranging from real estate strategy to developing effective work environments.
• He is also an active member of RICS and NASSCOM.
• His contribution to the field of real estate and facility planning has made him the recipient of the prestigious IFMA Foundation award three years in a row.
• He has also been a guest lecturer at Cornell University, New York University, and Texas A&M.

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Awfis - Shareholding

Here is the shareholding pattern of Awfis as of May 2024:

Awfis - Name, Tagline, and Logo

Awfis’ name comes from the way ‘office’ is pronounced.

Awfis - Business Model

Awfis operates under two leasing business models: Managed Aggregation and Straight Lease and Design & Build Model.

• Managed Aggregation Model: This is asset-light and risk-averse. In this approach, Awfis partners with landlords or developers who typically cover part or all of the fit-out capital expenditure.
• Straight Lease Model: Awfis leases space from developers or property owners under traditional terms, including a fixed monthly rental, common area maintenance charges, security deposits, minimum lock-in periods, lease tenure, and escalations. In this model, Awfis fully funds the capital expenditure for fitting out the property.
• Design & Build Model: Awfis collaborates with clients to create designs tailored to their business needs. Additionally, Awfis offers Mobility solutions, which include day passes, meeting rooms, and virtual offices, ideal for freelancers and new entrepreneurs or startups.

Awfis - Revenue Model

The company primarily deploys two models i.e. the Straight Lease Model and the Managed Aggregation Model (MAM). Among the two, MAM has been able to give them an edge due to its unique proposition wherein Awfis partners with space owners of underutilized commercial spaces and strikes a ‘no minimum guarantees’ deal - where the space owner makes the investment on fit-out infrastructure and builds out a center. The profits from the center are shared with a higher percentage going to the space owner.

Capital efficiency is an advantage of MAM, which enables to multiply our growing capacity by almost 4-5 times. Currently, 60% seats are under MAM and we intend to increase this to 70 – 80% in the coming year - Amit says

Awfis - User Acquisition

Awfis was launched way back in 2015 in New Delhi with one center in Vasant Kunj. In July 2017, the company had 5,800 desks across 20 centers. Having grown steadily throughout the last few years, they have expanded to 35,000 seats across 70 centers in just 4 years. This indicates a growing audience,

Our biggest marketing channel has been our customers itself, who, with their positive feedback and positive word of mouth, have been our biggest strength to us. We have managed to consistently gratify our user base by enabling complete transparency while enhancing relationships with both internal and external stakeholders. Additionally, staying true to our belief “where work meets life”, we are providing our members a platform to interact, collaborate and do business within the community.

The company also provides access to over 1000 events and experiences annually to its community members so as to maintain work-life balance and have fun while working.

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Awfis - Funding and Investors

Awfis has raised a total of $134.6 million in funding in over 9 funding rounds from different investors. Their last funding round was in June 2023 which was a venture round, led by A91 Partners.

Awfis - Growth / Revenue

Awfis revenue stood at INR 849 crore in FY24 and INR 545 crore in FY23.

Awfis is currently spread across 181 centers in 17 cities with more than 100,000 seats. It had set its eyes on the expansion in Tier 2 cities and solidified its presence in Tier 1 cities which materialized by expanding to Kochi, Jaipur, Bhubaneshwar, Ahmedabad, and Indore. 80% of the then userbase of Awfis belonged to the Tier 1 cities.

Awfis plans to expand further across India with a net addition of 5,368 seats and 9 centers in Q1FY25 and a total of 40,000 new seats in FY25, bringing the total seat count to 1,35,000.

In terms of the user base, the company serves over 1500 companies ranging from India’s leading startups/ MSMEs to Fortune 500 companies, forming the largest co-working community in India. Breaking up Awfis' revenue, SMEs account for 40 percent, corporates 40 percent, and 20% of revenue comes from startups and freelancers. In terms of community members, Awfis has over 28000 community members.

Awfis has managed to successfully establish itself with an extremely strong foothold in the rapidly evolving co-working sector.

Awfis’ success mantra of providing ‘Value driven services for Value focused companies’ has enabled it to spearhead the growth of this sector in India and made Awfis synonymous with co-working. Awfis has become profitable at the entity level since November 2018 and is planning to launch a public issue in 2024.

"A homegrown brand, at Awfis, we have a deep rooted understanding of our consumers’ needs and are growing year on year at a quick pace. We identify underutilized assets, partner with land owners and deliver Grade A workspaces. We have efficiently deployed our resources to meet our business requirements without hampering the quality of workspaces provided. The entire product portfolio is such that it keeps us ahead of the game." quotes Awfis founder Amit Ramani.

Some of the prominent expansions of Awfis in 2024 are:

• Awfis launched two co-working centers in Bengaluru in August 2024.
• The company opened a new co-working center in GIFT City, Gandhinagar in September 2024.

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Awfis Financials

Awfis reported a net profit of INR 38.67 crore in Q2 FY25, compared to a net loss of INR 4.34 crore in the same period last year.

The company's operating revenue rose 40.46% year-on-year to INR 292.38 crore for the quarter. Including other income of INR 9.56 crore, total revenue grew by over 40%, reaching INR 301.95 crore for the quarter ending September 30, 2024.

Awfis increased its operating revenue by 55.8%, going from INR 545 crore in FY23 to INR 849 crore in FY24. Total expenses rose by 45.8%, moving from INR 612 crore in FY23 to INR 892 crore in FY24. As a result, the company reduced its losses by 61.4%, from INR 46.16 crore in FY23 to INR 17.80 crore in FY24.

Awfis Expenses Breakdown

Awfis’ total expenses rose by 30.85%, reaching INR 287.29 crore in the September 2024 quarter, up from INR 219.55 crore in the same quarter last year.

Awfis witnessed a notable increase in expenses, surging from INR 612 crore in FY23 to INR 892 crore in FY24.

EBITDA

In the first nine months of FY24, Awfis earned INR 617 crore in revenue from customer contracts, up from INR 545 crore in FY23. Its EBITDA was INR 196 crore with a margin of 31%, the same as last year.

Awfis - Partnership and Tie-Ups

Awfis has partnered with three companies:

• Prestige Group
• Nucleus Office Park
• NSL (Nuziveedu Seeds Pvt Ltd)

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Awfis - IPO

The IPO for Awfis Space Solutions opened on 22nd May 2024 and closed on May 27, 2024. The share of Awfis IPO listed on 30 May, 2024. It was very successful on the first day, with a lot of interest from retail investors and NIIs. The IPO ended with bids that were more than 108 times the number of shares the company offered. The IPO included a new issue of 3,342,037 shares worth INR 128 crore and an Offer-for-Sale (OFS) of 12,295,699 shares worth INR 2,470.93 crore. The total IPO size was INR 598.93 crore. The price range was set at INR 364 to INR 383, with a lot size of 39 shares. T

Awfis - Future Plan

Awfis Space Solutions aims to increase its seats by 50% to reach 135,000, focusing on managed office spaces to grow its revenue. The company plans to add 40,000 seats by FY25, with new centers using the managed aggregation model. A report shows that 15,084 seats were added successfully, mainly through the managed aggregation model. The company is also aiming for a 30% revenue growth in FY25.

FAQs

What is Awfis?

Awfis is a co-working space provider founded in 2015 and based out of New Delhi.

Who is Awfis owner?

Awfis was founded by Amit Ramani.

What are co-working spaces?

Co-working spaces, just as the term indicates, are working spaces that are shared by two or more employers.

When was Awfis founded?

Awfis was founded in April 2015.