Co-working space provider Awfis to raise $13 mn

Co-working space provider Awfis Space Solutions Pvt Ltd will be raising $13 million (Rs 90 crore at the current exchange rate) in a mix of equity and debt funding from Bisque Ltd and Link Investment Trust, according to the company’s filings with the Registrar of Companies.

Bisque will invest Rs 16.6 crore as equity and Rs 71.9 crore as debt while Link will pump in Rs 1.3 crore as equity, the filings show.

The fresh round of funding follows a $3.6 million tranche it received in May this year. 

In July 2018, Awfis had raised $20 million in its Series C round of funding from Sequoia Capital, Innoven Capital and The Three Sisters: Institutional Office, the family office run by Radha, Raakhe and Roshini Rana Kapoor, the three daughters of Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor.

It received the second tranche of this round in May ($3.6 million), which helped increase the company’s valuation to $100.72 million, according to TechCircle estimates based on its filings.

Awfis had raised $20 million from Sequoia in a Series B round in April 2017. 

The company was jointly incubated with a total capital investment of $11 million in April 2015 by its founder and chief executive officer Amit Ramani and The Three Sisters.

It currently has a network of 63 centres with over 30,000 seats across 10 cities. Awfis claims to be housing a total member base of over 1,500 companies and more than 19,000 professionals.

In an interaction with TechCircle last year, Ramanisaid the company plans to expand to 11-12 million sq ft, which would roughly translate into two lakh seats, over the next four to five years.

In May, Awfis opened its largest centre in Bengaluru, its 11th facility in the city. Spread over 63,000 square feet, the facility can house 1,050 workstations and claims 80% occupancy from corporates and startups including Reliance Communications, Frontizo Business Services, and Equal Experts.

Awfis competes with the likes of CoWrks, GoWork,  99Springboard, SoftBank-backed WeWork and Innov8, which was acquired by OYO recently to launch its co-working platform.