Plug and play

BENGALURU: When startups grow and look for a better place to work from, it becomes challenging to pick the right office space. IndiQube steps in to help with IT park-like buildings.

“We take buildings on lease for about 20 years and then develop it. Though a startup can rent an apartment, having buildings with all the facilities help in recruiting employees and giving them a comfortable space to work in,” says Rishi Das, co-founder and chairman of IndiQube.

The idea came after Rishi found a gap in the market. Companies that were doing well could rent spaces in IT parks, but the smaller ones continued to work in apartments, dealing with landlords, power cuts or fear of deposit not being refunded.

“With us, the company only has to get their laptops. We help them get everything from employees to security to cafeterias,” he says.

“We provide them with different facilities so that they can focus on their work and not bother about other things such as  employees’ security, transport or cafeteria. Some facilities such as the boardroom can be used whenever they require it. And even when the company grows, they need not bother about shifting to a new location as they can utilise the existing space in the building,” he says adding that all these facilities also help in controlling attrition rate of their employees.

Their startup has 6-7 buildings in different locations in the city such as  Koramangala, Marathahalli, HSR Layout, Brookefield and Sarjapur, providing space for 80-90 startups with about 2- 3,000 employees. Some of the well-known startups that function from this building are Bluestone Jewellery and Lifestyle, Freshmenu and Micromax.

IndiQube also organises events for the startups. “They can be anything related to sports or health, can be cultural or wellness programmes or lectures,” says Rishi.

Companies can also rent out space measured in square feet or in the number of chairs. “The newer companies with lesser employees opt for per chair basis and bigger ones go for per square feet,” he says. While IndiQube charges the startups Rs 60-95 per square feet, depending on the location of the building, the cost for renting a chair can be between Rs  8,000 to 12,000 per month.

Ask him if it is difficult for startups to afford this amount, he says, “The startups that work from our offices have crossed the struggling phase. They need better facilities and space to work from. It’s affordable to them,” says the serial entrepreneur who also founded CareerNet Consulting, a recruitment platform, his first startup in 1999 which he uses to get employees for the startups working from IndiQube.

SpeakTribe, a one and a half year old startup, moved to IndiQube about two months ago. Anurag Adarsh, founder of the startup says that working out of IndiQube helps him concentrate on the functioning of the company without bothering about things like cafeteria and security. “Even during the Cauvery agitation, they kept updating us and informing us if it is safe to travel to work. I don’t have to bother about things like that here,” he says.

Adarsh has rented out three seats at IndiQube Alpha in Outer Ring Road, Panathur Junction. The space is also quite affordable for him. “I don’t have to worry about electricity or maintenance,” he says.