Qdesq Receives Funding from JLL Spark

Gurugram-based co-working space firm, Qdesq has received an undisclosed sum of money from proptech and real estate technology investor, JLL Spark.  

JLL Spark, a Silicon Valley-headquartered VC firm of JLL, has made its first investment in the India-based company.  

With this, Qdesq intends to invest in the analytics capabilities of its technology platform, the daily news, The Hindu reported citing the statement made by Qdesq.

The fresh funds will aid the company is investing aggressively in the analytics capabilities of its tech platform. It will permit commercial owners to form flexible coworking space, as well as flex spaces, within the commercial system, as reported by the daily news, Inc42. 

In this deal, NA Shah Associates and Fortitude Law were financial advisors to the company. 

Expanding Qdesq 

Qdesq was incorporated by Lavesh Bhandari and Paras Arora in 2015. The company primarily works as an aggregator of flexible workspaces, managed workplaces, and virtual offices. It assists people, ranging from startup owners to entrepreneurs to freelancers, by rendering well furnished and equipped workplaces.   

Currently, the coworking firm asserts to have nearly 2,200 centers and more than 500k desks across 35 cities in India. Lately, it has forayed in the Philippines and further, decides to invade in other Asian cities by the following term. 

“Our transaction volumes have been growing over 400% year-on-year and, with our shared vision with JLL, the opportunity is to scale the platform across Asia,” Cofounder of Qdesq, Paras Arora told the daily news, Inc42. 

So far, Qdesq has offered its services to various companies--Zomato, Nagarro, Phonepe, Zerodha, and Bank of Baroda, to name a few. 

“The investment in Qdesq taps into the growth opportunity that the flexible workspace segment offers. JLL’s strong corporate relationships across the globe, combined with Qdesq’s technology platform and preferred partnerships with flex space operators, will help us provide a more comprehensive solution to our clients across 35 cities in India,”  CEO and country head at India, JLL, Ramesh Nair told the above-cited daily news.

JLL Spark, which is a part of JLL, is primarily of $100 million investment fund which concentrates on forming new products, infusing capital and shoring up startup companies in the proptech industry.

Coworking Segment is Booming in India  

According to the JLL study, “ The demand for flexible offices – including co-working spaces and serviced offices – is growing faster in the Asia Pacific than anywhere else in the world. In India, the growth of flexible office space is expected to grow at 40 – 50 per cent in 2018.

The report further states that the potential market size of co-working across India is expected to be 13.5 million users by 2020 about half of which will be from enterprises, which are expected to take up 10.3 mn seats. Freelancers and Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are expected to contribute 1.5 million users' worth of demand, while it is anticipated that startups will demand up to 100,000 seats by 2020.

Apart from Qdesq, there are various other players in the coworking niche. Recently, the Indian hospitality company, Oyo ventured in the coworking space and launched its company, Oyo Workspaces. Besides this, the hospitality firm owned some other potential players in the same segment. Seeing the rigorous activity in the coworking space, this niche seems to be growing a bit faster and holds positive opportunities ahead.