India’s e-commerce giant Flipkart is in talks with multiple co-working space providers to pick up over 3,000 desks in Bengaluru in order to go ahead with its first transaction in the flexible office space, said sources close to the matter.
“The firm has floated the RFP (request for proposal) and is in talks with at least five operators to fill in the larger requirement. WeWork and CoWrks are among the companies being considered,” said the source.
This comes as a major change in the Walmart-owned Flipkart and is seen as the company’s departure from its practice of functioning in its own campus. Flipkart’s custom-built corporate campus, spread over an area of 8,00,000 sq.ft., is located in Bengaluru’s Embassy Tech Village which is owned by private equity firm Blackstone and realty developer Embassy Group.
Currently, Flipkart has 10,000 full-time employees across various locations and this number excludes employees of Myntra and Jabong. In 2017-18, the e-commerce firm saw 40 per cent on-year revenue growth to reach Rs. 21,438 crore.
“Flipkart has invested in the country for longer term and the existing building is fully utilised. It is concentrating on growing business in India over the next five years,” said another source.
According to a recent report by Knight Frank, flexible space will account for 30 to 40 per cent of the office space occupied by large corporates globally in the next three years, up from 5 per cent or less at present.
