STARTING UP - INDIQUBE
CO-MANAGED
SPACE FOR
Indiqube, co-founded by Rishi Das and Meghna Agarwal, is taking responsibility
for primary infrastructure requirements of startups and SMBs in Bengaluru’s mid-
market segment by offering co-managed office spaces.
The challenge is that
every city and every
region in India is different.
We got our model right
in Bengaluru, and now
we need to understand
the need in other regions
and design our spaces
accordingly
24 • Smart CEO | February 2018
SMBs
S Meera
While the startup culture in India has
taken strong roots in the past few years,
especially in Bengaluru, it is also seeing
a trend wherein entrepreneurs are playing
it smart by resorting to plug and play
offices rather than setting up an office of
their own; a reason being, investing in
office spaces in nascent stages eats into
the company’s already meagre resources,
and such spaces also allow the founders to
focus on the core business rather than on
administration and maintenance.
It is this opportunity that Rishi Das
wanted to capitalise on, and the eureka
moment happened thus. When Das was
running Careernet, with his brother and
co-founder Anshuman Das, the company
had acquired 100,000 sq. ft of space in
Bengaluru in 2013 but was using only
half of it. Having readied the interiors
and infrastructure, it decided to rent
out the unoccupied space till its already
1000-strong team expanded further.
When in 2015, the need arose, the client
company occupying the space entrusted
the responsibility of finding and managing
new space for them. Realising this was
not an isolated requirement, as there was a
large gap in mid-market spaces in the city,
Das along with Meghna Agarwal, founded
Indiqube in 2015.
IN BRIEF
Rishi Das, along with his
brother Anshuman Das, had
been successfully running a
recruitment services company,
Careernet, and had invested
in excess space with future
expansions in mind. In the time
till they achieved their goals,
they rented the space out. When
the time came to reclaim it, they
were surprised by the demand
for such managed workspaces
among startups. Further research
showed the growing demand
for such spaces, especially in
Bangalore, and they decided
to capitalise on it by setting up
Indiqube in 2015. Indiqube was
setup with internal accruals and
has grown to 700,000 sq. ft of
space in 2.5 years. The company
aims to expand to 1,000,000 sq.
ft by the end of this fiscal and
also expand to other cities. It
will also be looking for external
investments to fuel its growth.
 modified easily these days, to suit
the requirements of a new customer
(company). “The biggest challenge is
that startups don’t know how they will
grow in the next three years. This makes
it difficult for them to plan space,” points
out Das. Hence, hiring ready- to-use
spaces makes it convenient for them to
expand as needed. In fact, Indiqube also
offers board room spaces for companies,
when needed.
not excite the company as much, since
the scope for scale is low. But from
the point of view of having a presence,
Indiqube intends to form partnerships in
the foreseeable future, to provide Indian
executives traveling abroad, a workspace.
That being said, the immediate focus for
them is to tap the top 10 cities in India.

RISHI DAS, CO-FOUNDER, INDIQUBE
The Changing Needs
Initially, the founders invested Rs. 40
crore through self-accruals and debt,
and Indiqube is looking to raise Rs. 100
crore in equity in the next two quarters to
occupy a million square feet of space. “In
the initial stages, convincing landlords
to give us space was very difficult, since
they were used to dealing with the lessee
directly,” points out Das. But after they
managed to acquire two to three buildings,
the process became easier.
The demand is certainly high. An industry
estimate suggests that there is a need for
40 million square feet of new office space
in the country. “Out of this, 70 per cent
belongs to those who employ less than
200 people. The SMB segment is where
the market is,” he adds. Amongst Indian
cities, Bengaluru is where the demand
for such spaces is the greatest, which
Das believes will work to Indiqube’s
advantage.
From 5x5 cabins, today workspaces
are narrowing down to 4x2. There is
no need for a bulky monitor or other
paraphernalia, paperwork has come down,
cloud servers have eliminated the need for
server rooms, and WiFi is being replaced
by broadband.
Interestingly, office interiors can be
…And Growing
From the 300,000 sq. ft. of space the Snapshot - Indiqube
company had acquired in March 2017, it
has already added another 400,000 sq. ft.
of space (recently) and hopes to expand
this to 1,000,000 sq. ft by March 2018. In
terms of growth rate, while it is currently
growing at 200 per cent, it expects to FOUNDERS
stabilise at 70 to 80 percent year-on-year
growth over the years.
Rishi Das, Meghna Agarwal
Das clearly indicates that while the focus
of Indiqube will continue to remain
Bengaluru; Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad
and Chennai are also on the anvil. “The
challenge is that every city, every region
is different in India. We got our model
right in Bengaluru, and now we need to FOUNDED IN
understand the need in other regions,”
he explains. Secondly, he believes there
is a need to create awareness about the
2015
advantages of managed workspaces as
there is still some scepticism around the
need for it.
Moving Forward
Indiqube currently employs 100 people
directly and outsources blue-collar jobs. FOCUS
“The business is people driven, but not
people intensive,” explains Das as he Managed workspaces; Indiqube
shares the vision for the next three years
plans to manage 1 million sq. feet
for which he expects the team size to of space by March 2018
suffice. Training to keep the staff up to
date on the changing requirements of its
customers is key to be able to service
them efficiently. “In three years, we
expect managed workspace to be the next
version of how corporates look for office
spaces. And, Indiqube should be a catalyst
FUNDING
in this change. We would like to be
thought leaders in this space,” he says. Internal accruals + debt. Looking to raise
Rs. 100 crores in equity
Currently, the international market does

February 2018 | Smart CEO • 25