Awfis Looking To Go Public, Shortlists 3 Investments Banks

SUMMARY

The startup has shortlisted ICICI Securities, IIFL Capital and Axis Capital as advisors

Awfis would file the DRHP within a month for an IPO worth $100 Mn to $125 Mn

Founded in 2015 and based in Chennai, Awfis has raised $90 Mn from investors so far

ChrysCapital, Peak XV Partners’ backed Awfis has shortlisted three investment banks for its 2024 IPO.

Chennai-based coworking space provider is likely to file a draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) within a month for an IPO worth $100 Mn to $125 Mn and has shortlisted ICICI Securities, IIFL Capital and Axis Capital as IBs for the IPO, according to a Moneycontrol report.

Further, Awfis’ IPO will be a mix of primary and secondary share issues, allowing investors to dilute their shares and the startup to raise growth capital to expand geographically.

With this, Awfis is set to become the first coworking startup from India to go public.

Awfis was founded in 2015 by Amit Ramani and has evolved from being a coworking network to a tech-enabled workspace solutions platform that caters to freelancers, startups, SMEs, large corporates and MNCs.

Awfis has raised $90 Mn from investors, with its last funding round coming in May 2020.

The startup competes with the likes of WeWork, Smartworks and Tablespace. The segment has seen a sharp post-COVID-19 recovery as the IT sector continues to top the demand charts. The startup claims to be operational across 150 centres in 17 cities and has 88,000 seats for a base of more than 1,500 companies.

India has seen a slowdown in startup IPOs since last year, thanks to the prevailing global macroeconomic headwinds. Despite India’s relative isolation from global economic shocks, several startups looking to go public have secured additional funding or shelved IPO plans.

This year, however, the ecosystem has seen a resurgence of startup IPOs, with Yatra, Zaggle, Yudiz and ideaForge having gone public. The trend also coincides with a general revival of tech startup IPOs on the Indian bourses.

However, the status quo might change soon as three Indian unicorns are looking for a public listing in the short term.

Mamaearth, having filed its DRHP months ago, is planning to go public in November. On the other hand, Ola Electric has fast-tracked its IPO preparations and might file a DRHP by the end of October. Swiggy is also positioning itself for a 2024 IPO, having resumed IPO preparations.