BENGALURU: Flexible workspace provider Smartworks has leased 2.1 lakh sq ft space in Pune and Chennaito expand its operations. The Pune facility has a seating capacity of 2,800 while that in Chennai can seat 1,500 workers. Workspaces in both cities will be operational from this month.

“Our relentless focus on the enterprise segment has enabled the company to garner significant footprint in India. As a result, we have focused our efforts on strengthening our leadership position in these markets by consolidating our operations here,” said Smartworks founder Neetish Sarda. “In the last two and a half years, we have noticed a marked change in the customer base and their preferences for office space.”

Both Chennai and Pune have been witnessing sustained demand for flexible workspaces.

Smartworks has been expanding its prein southern and western India since the beginning of the year. It plans to expand its workplace portfolio fivefold to 10 million sq ft by 2022. At present, it has a footprint of 2 million sq ft and 33,000 seats spread across 20 centres in the country, including Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata. “While earlier, coworking

offices

were catering primarily to startups, freelancers, SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and entrepreneurs, today a large number of established corporates and multinationals are leasing these spaces,” said Harsh Binani, cofounder, Smartworks.

The company caters to enterprise clients such as Episource, Lenovo, Xerox, Amazon, Olx and Microsoft. Flexible workspaces offer several benefits including configured office solutions, networking activities and end-to-end amenities such as crèche facility and health and wellness programmes.