Co-Creative

Co-working spaces are shaking up India’s business scene, says Raj Aditya Chaudhuri.

- Raj Aditya Chaudhuri

Sohan Shah was looking for a temporary office for his two-person operation when he first walked into Ministry of New (ministryofnew.in), a coworking space in a heritage building in Mumbai’s Fort area. Two years later, his ad agency, Siriti, employs 11 people, but still works out of the same office alongside many other small enterprises. “We fell in love with the place. And while we’ve been here, we have met interesting professionals, some of whom have become key business partners for us,” he says.

Increasingly, entrepreneurs like Shah, and even his clients, are opting for co-working spaces. As small businesses have boomed, a whole industry has developed to house them. The formula is simple—a spot equipped with high-speed wi-fi, printers and conference facilities, ready to move into and typically at a fraction of the cost of renting a traditional office. And these are springing up in metros as well as smaller cities. “As many as 80 percent of all co-working spaces in India opened only last year,” says Marlies Bloemendaal, founder and owner of Ministry of New. The trend has taken off in such a big way that in February this year, India’s first edition of CU Asia, the annual co-working conference, was held in Goa.