Sequoia-backed coworking rental startup Awfis raises $5.3 mn

Coworking space provider Awfis Space Solutions has raised $5.3 million (Rs 40 crore) in a mix of equity and debt from British radiator company Bisque and New Delhi-based Link Investment Trust.

A bulk of the fundraise was in form of debt from Bisque, to whom Awfis issued 39,400 compulsorily convertible debentures (CCDs) at Rs 10,000 per debenture, along with 36,878 Series D1 preference shares at Rs 162.70 per share, regulatory filings showed. 

Queries sent to Awfis and Bisque did not elicit a response at the time of publishing.  

In August last year, the New Delhi headquartered firm raised $30 million (Rs 212 crore) in a growth funding round, led by private equity investor ChrysCapital, Sequoia Capital India, and The Three Sisters Institutional Office, a family office run by Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor’s daughters Radha, Raakhe and Roshini Rana Kapoor.

As per regulatory filings in July 2019, Awfis had plans to raise $13 million (Rs 90 crore) in a mix of equity and debt funding from the aforementioned investors. 

So far, Awfis has raised $72 million since inception, according to data with VCCEdge. 

The company also counts realty services provider Rab Enterprises, financial consultancy firm Doit Urban Ventures and venture debt firm Innoven Capital as its investors.

Last month, it launched the Awfis@Home solution, which assesses an organisation’s readiness to adapt the remote working model in terms of physical infrastructure for connectivity and technology. 

Founded by Amit Ramani in 2015, Awfis has 67 centres and 35,000 seats across 10 cities. It offers multi-location workspaces on a flexible lease tenor, ranging from an hour to one year, depending on work requirements. It claims to have a member base of 1,500 companies and 28,000 professionals.

WeWork, 91springboard and Awfis are among the top seven players in the coworking spaces business, in terms of the number of facilities in India. 

In August last year, Gurugram-based coworking spaces provider GoWork raised $53 million debt from a private fund managed by the world’s largest asset management company BlackRock and the special situations group of CLSA Capital Partners. 

In July 2019, SoftBank-backed hospitality unicorn OYO entered the co-working business with the acquisition of Delhi-based coworking space provider Innov8.