Innov8 Coworking - Expanding the Culture of Coworking Space with Style and Sophistication!

Rishabh Rathi

Apr 8, 2021 — 7 min read

The concept of co-working space dates back to 1995. But it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it has gained popularity in the last decade. To make the co-working industry more sophisticated, Ritesh Malik founded Innov8 in 2016.

Innov8 is a premium coworking space provider in the country. In recent times, it has emerged as a leading brand in the coworking space standing on a strong footing in the Indian startup market space. It’s not widely known but India is the 3rd biggest startup hub in the world! This germinates the apparent need for relevant workspace in the country.

Innov8 - Company Highlights

Startup Name	Innov8
Headquarter	New Delhi, India
Sector	Real Estate, Co-working
Founders	Ritesh Malik
Founded	October 2015
Parent Organization	Innov8, Inc.
Website	innov8.work

About Innov8 and How it Works
Founders of Innov8 and team
How was Innov8 Started?
Innov8 - Startup Launch
Innov8 - Business Model and Revenue Model
Innov8 - Competitors
Innov8 - Funding and Investors
Innov8 - Growth
Innov8 - Future Plans

About Innov8 and How it Works

Innov8 was launched with the vision to provide the best infrastructure in town & supremely innovative design facilities to the members working in the workspace. This will lead them to work to their fullest potential while leading an equally balanced work-life with the finest and top-notch office spaces.

All in all, Innov8 provides cool and sophisticated co-working spaces to facilitate the process for the startup ecosystem and the merging freelancer's culture in the country. Since its inception, it is based on the core value of building world-class products at a superiorly value-conscious price with top-notch service. This is now the fundamental strength of this venture. The company, by and large, focuses on scaling its business model to deeply assist in integrating more verticals under the shared economy space in the country.

“At this time, Innov8 coworking space is helping startups and freelancers by providing them an ergonomically designed workspace that has exclusively been curated for better work-life.”, says the founder, Ritesh Malik.

Founders of Innov8 and team

The founder of Innov8 is Ritesh Malik. He is a doctor by profession and is a graduate of Dr. MGR Medical University in Tamil Nadu.

Ritesh Malik - Founder and CEO, Innov8 Coworking

Dr. Ritesh Malik is an Indian doctor, entrepreneur, and investor. He runs a virtual Startup Accelerator in India, currently investing in and mentoring 11 startups across various industries. He was the first investor & mentor of FIN ROBOTICS, which became the first Indian hardware product company to raise a Series A venture funding.

He did his MBBS from a rural medical college, Theni, and an internship from Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi. His parents are doctors; his father is a pediatrician & mother is a gynecologist. They have a secondary healthcare hospital in Delhi called Radix Healthcare. He also studied for a short time at the London School of Economics and completed a semester at Harvard University.

How was Innov8 Started?

If you’re wondering how was Innov8 started, we have got you covered. All of it started while founder Ritesh was in medical school and he sort of developed a keen interest in the divine field of entrepreneurship. During his college days, Ritesh had successfully managed to attend a short Marketing Science 101 course at the prestigious London School of Economics during one of his summer breaks. That’s where he learned deeply about how Silicon Valley was booming and buzzing with startup ventures and sustainability modules every day.

It is also during this time that he founded Guerilla Ventures in 2013 which is an angel fund. This venture has invested in more than 45 startups across various sectors including healthcare, information technology, innovation, SaaS, etc. After being a successful investor for quite a few years, Innov8 owner Ritesh Malik again felt the entrepreneurial itch! And that’s how he went on to start the startup in Delhi in January 2016.

Innov8 CEO and founder Ritesh says: “The office space was in the heart of Connaught Place in Delhi, and it was fully sold out within 30 days.”

Innov8 - Startup Launch

Soon after Ritesh launched Innov8, the venture was picked up by Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator for the 2016 batch.

“We were told we should do large centers because with small centers we will not be able to become a $1 billion revenue company. At YC, we learned that to be huge, we need to have large campuses,” said Ritesh Malik, owner of Innov8.

Followed by this event, the startup went on to set up a 500-seater campus in the IT hub of the country, Bengaluru, which also sold out in just two months. As of today, from typically 25,000-27,000 square feet co-working spaces, the company is gone further deep in the game and is now setting up 50,000 square feet spaces around the country.

Innov8 Logo

Seeing this level of the upping game, it wouldn’t come as any surprise to us that Innov8 is now aiming to do one lakh square feet workspaces soon. They have been successful in creating a coworking space in Hyderabad for about 80,000 square feet. This was the time when established players like WeWork had already established its space in the city.

The startup has immense competition in the coworking market but the rising demand for coworking spaces always exceeds the supply of these spaces. Hence this is where they step in and conquer. Innov8 Coworking was acquired by OYO for $30 million on Mar 15, 2019.

Innov8 - Business Model and Revenue Model

Innov8 typically operates on an asset-light business model which means that it leases the working spaces for up to 10 years.

“Our focus is on doing larger campuses because we feel that if we do larger campuses in a particular area, the economies of scale will kick in and we end up making more money out of it, as well as the community building factor plays along with it," added Ritesh Mallik, the founder of Innov8.

Innov8 - Competitors

Though the competition is huge and cut-throat in the coworking space market, the company’s biggest competitors are the ventures called Awfis and 91springboard.

Innov8 - Funding and Investors

The funding amount of Innov8 lies at $4 million. In 2018, it raised its pre-Series A round of funding for $4 million led by the Credence Family Office. Also, the existing investors participated in this funding round.

The company is backed by high profile angel investors including Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder, Paytm; Rajan Anandan, Head, Google India; Anand Chandrasekaran, Global Director of Platform and Product Partnerships, Facebook; and Girish Mathrubootham, Founder and CEO of Freshworks, among others.

Innov8 Coworking was acquired by OYO for $30 million on Mar 15, 2019.

Innov8 - Growth

Operates in more than 13 cities across India
Has an overall capacity of 6,000 seats
Has a wide network of more than 190 clients
Its clients include RBL Bank, food delivery major Swiggy and Vice Media to only name a few
Its centers are built with facilities like nap rooms, rooftops, recreation facilities, refreshments, and printing services
Has approximately 95% occupancy across all centers

Innov8 - Future Plans

“We have almost 95% occupancy across all our centers, which is one of the foremost markers of our success. With the domain expertise our investors bring on-board, we look forward to leveraging their support, as we build a leading platform offering collaborative space for growth and innovation in India. By the end of this year, we will have 24,000 seats, with 30-32 centers” concluded Ritesh Malik.