Managed offices provider DevX raises $3 million from family offices for expansion – ET RealEstate

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Flexible office space provider DevX has raised funding worth over $3 million from key investors including Urmin Family Office, Bidiwala Family Office, Navneet Publications, Venus Infrastructure and structural consulting firm Ducon.

The funds will be used for Gujarat’s largest managed office space provider’s expansion and to more than double its portfolio to 2 million sq ft from the current 900,000 sq ft under management with 25 centres across 11 cities.

“We are excited to have raised funding from discerning investors at a time when we are planning aggressive growth,” said Umesh Uttamchandani, co-founder of DevX. “The funds will be deployed to give further impetus to our national and global expansion goals. The immense experience in real estate, structural engineering and investment that the investors bring to the cap table will enable us to put in place even stronger governance practices.”

DevX has been looking to expand its portfolio in metro cities, tier-2 and 3 cities and thus consolidate its pan-India presence by the end of this year.

The fund raising includes fresh and primary issue of equity worth $2.3 million and around $700,000 worth dilution by one of the existing investors. This is the second round of funding raised by the company. Earlier it had raised $1 million in mid-2019 from an Ahmedabad-based entity.

“We are looking at this as an investment in the future of India’s co-working segment,” said Devansh Majithia of Urmin Family Office. “DevX’s innovative approach to providing an immersive, value-driven experience for its tenants perfectly aligns with our own investment philosophy.”

The company has already started work on its Dubai centre and is planning to expand in other international markets too. It may explore raising funds for global expansion soon, Uttamchandani added.

Started in September 2017, DevX is a co-working space-cum-accelerator founded by entrepreneurs Uttamchandani, Rushit Shah and Parth Shah, and a listed entity Dev Information Technology.

The demand for flexible workspaces from large enterprises has gone up multi-fold across metros and also in tier-2 and 3 cities in the backdrop of the rising acceptance for hybrid work model that emerged post the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and so has the preference for customisation of these office spaces.

The entire flexible workspace universe has shifted from a cookie-cutter approach of standard workspace options to a more customised, enterprise solution with a big focus on end-to-end space and amenities management.

This has resulted in the emergence of a distinct managed space operator category within the flex ecosystem, in addition to other operators that are evolving to a more hybrid model to support large enterprises, now creating on-demand, new-age workspaces.