JLL Spark Invests In Flexible Workspace Platform Qdesq

Gurugram-headquartered flexible workspace provider Qdesq has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from JLL Spark.

The fresh funds will help the company invest heavily into the analytics capabilities of its technology platform. It will also allow commercial asset owners to create viable coworking and flex spaces within commercial complexes. NA Shah Associates and Fortitude Law were advisors to the transaction.

Qdesq: Over 2200 Centres And More

Founded in 2015 by Paras Arora and Lavesh Bhandari, Qdesq is an online aggregator of coworking spaces, shared workspaces, managed workplaces, virtual offices, and individual offices. Qdesq helps people from startup founders and freelancers to established entrepreneurs and corporates, offering hassle-free, ready to use, plug-and-play workplaces.

At present, Qdesq claims to have approximately 2,200 centres, lists over 500K desks in near real time, covering the top 35 Indian cities. The company recently launched in the Philippines and plans to be present in most of Asia’s gateway cities in the near 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,” said Paras Arora, cofounder of Qdesq.

Qdesq has solved real estate occupancy requirements for a wide variety of clients ranging from super high growth technology companies like Zomato, Phonepe and Zerodha to more established corporates like Bank of Baroda, Nagarro and Hyundai.

“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,” said Ramesh Nair, CEO and country head – India, JLL.

JLL Spark is a $100 Mn investment fund by JLL which is focused on creating new products, investments and supporting startups in the real estate tech industry. The investment in Qdesq is its first India focused investment.

Flexible Workspaces Market

From the beginning of 2018, India observed rapid growth in the establishment and performance of flexible workspaces. Such workspaces, complemented with coworking spaces, have come up with innovative ideas, better flexibility, and engaging activities, among others, to be at the forefront of the commercial real estate sector.

According to a JLL study, the share of coworking office leasing has risen to 15% in the first six months (January to June) of 2019 from the 8% level seen in 2018. The segment has absorbed 10.1 mn square feet of cumulative space since 2017 to the first half of 2019, according to the findings.

With not many competitors in the same race, there is a huge market for Qdesq to explore.

As per JLL estimates, currently, there are approximately 325 to 330 flexible workspace operators in the top seven cities in India. The study finds that the average size of transactions in the co-working segment increased from 37,000 square ft in 2017 to 52,000 sq ft in 2018 and further to 97,000 sq ft in the first half of 2019.