While startups form the crux of the overall, rapid development league which PM Modi wants India to get into, other ecosystem supporters are equally important in that growth cycle. And one of those supporters are co-working spaces — providing dirt cheap, yet masterful working environment to startups, so that they can focus on real work rather than worrying about office maintenance and stuff.
And while these co-working spaces generally are self-sustainable in nature, an added capital boost could well help in overall upliftment of the ecosystem.
Realising that, and providing that much needed acceleration, a few notable angel investors -including TaxiForSure’s Raghunandan, Arihant Patni of Hive Technologies and Arun Narayan from UK India Business Council among others — have co-invested in BHIVE Workplace, a Bangalore-based co-working space chain with three branches in the city, and in process of opening up a fourth — all within just 12 months.
BHIVE, which started out as a provider of accessible and quality plug ‘n’ play workspace in Koramangla, Bangalore, now fulfils the vision behind its existence by fuelling efficiency, catalyzing innovation, triggering collaborations and housing success stories of about 90 startups covering 4000 active members. BHIVE Workspace’s fourth location is coming up in HSR Sector 4 shortly.
Talking about the reason behind setting up BHIVE, CEO & Founder Shesh Paplikar firmly believes that co-working spaces are essential to developing a growing and vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in India. He reflects that while an entrepreneur or startup spends time, efforts and investments on taking an idea to the next level, there exists many trivial, yet significant issues that grab attention.
Finding the right workspace, maintenance of office space, bill payments and operations, house-keeping and security, procuring food and beverages etc. are a few such distractions. Setting up the perfect backdrop to fix this issue or to amplify one’s productivity, lead to the conception of BHIVE Workspace.
TaxiForSure’s Raghunandan, who invested in this round, said in a prepared statement,
TaxiForSure overgrew its 1200 sq ft office space in no time. The growing needs of the company took its employees to four different offices in the same year. Many efforts, that rather be invested on work, were channeled into becoming a fully functional office space. When I heard that my classmate Shesh was contemplating around the same issue, taking away this burden from a dedicated mind, I knew the model would work.
BHIVE Workspace houses startups, small businesses and companies. RoadRunnr, which is now a commended and well-funded startup, started out of a 6 seater cabin in BHIVE Koramangala.
Placed in prime locations in Bangalore, BHIVE houses enthusiasts across various work profiles like – Tech, Software, Mobile, Hardware, IOT, Fintech, Education, Innovation, Foodtech, Gaming, eCommerce, B2B, B2C, Hyperlocal, Social Impact & freelancers.
