As per reports, WeWork India is planning to go slow on its investments, than it had planned previously planned. WeWork India is looking forward to turning profitable by October this year. It’s also reported that the local affiliate of the global coworking venture had started operations about three years ago.
As per CEO Karan Virwani, WeWork has been considerably slow in signing lease agreements for new buildings after September. This was when it had to withdraw its IPO, whic was followed by a tepid investor response and also a crash in its valuation.
Virwani had said that WeWork India had signed leases for 25,000 seats last year, and this year, it would roughly be the same number. Thus, WeWork has gone slower in signing leases. This would make WeWork miss its target of having 100,000 desks by 2020.
As of now, WeWork has about 52,000 seats in 37 centres across seven cities in India. Virwani even added that while WeWork would grow at a faster rate than the industry, it would be a sustainable one, rather than growth at all costs.
WeWork has a management agreement with its India affiliate in India. This is being run by Jitu Virwani’s Embassy group. As per the agreement, the building owner funds all capital expenditures to build-out the space, as per specifications.
WeWork recently appointed Sandeep Mathrani, as CEO earlier this month. This was seen as a move to position itself as a real estate player, that is focussed more on leasing office desks, rather than a tech startup.
Also, WeWork India has been looking for an investor to raise around $200 million and also sell a minority stake.