OYO Hotels and Homes, the world’s third-largest chain of hotels, homes, managed living and workspaces, on Tuesday confirmed its acquisition of Innov8, a co-working spaces provider, highlighting the company’s increasing focus on the fast-growing segment.
While Oyo did not disclose financial details of the Innov8 acquisition, it is pegged to be around $30 million, according to a TechCrunch report.
Charting out its multi-brand approach to the workspaces opportunity in India, Oyo introduced three co-working brands under Oyo Workspaces: Innov8, Powerstation and Workflo for upper mid-scale, mid-scale and economy segments, respectively.
OYO Workspaces is set to open the door to its more than 21 workspaces, with over 15,000 seats across more than 10 cities in India, it said in a statement.
Of these, Innov8 is currently spread across six cities—Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Mumbai, with 16 centres hosting over 6,000 employees of brands like Swiggy, Paytm, Pepsi, Nykaa, OLX and Lenskart. Powerstation has one centre in Gurugram with over 1,000 seats and Workflo has set up four centres across NCR, Hyderabad and Bengaluru with a hosting capacity of over 1,500 seats in total already.
“The workplace as a service space presents an exciting opportunity for Oyo to utilize its existing technology and operational expertise. Through a targeted multi-brand strategy, we aim to provide a differentiated experience for co-workers at different price points and help expand access to co-working spaces to more and more businesses and professionals across the country,” Rohit Kapoor, chief executive officer, new real estate businesses, Oyo, said in a statement.
Oyo pegs co-working spaces to be a $20 billion business opportunity in India by 2020.
“Given our experience in the hospitality industry and investment in core competencies that have helped us scale so fast in the hospitality, housing rental and banquet services business, we believe we are uniquely placed to create a strong offering for the corporates looking for space as a service,” said Kapoor.
Oyo’s entry into the workspaces business comes at a time when India is already seeing the emergence of several large companies in this segment, including the likes of WeWork India, CoWrks, Awfis and Smartworks.
Source: Mint