Global CEO Sandeep Mathrani joins WeWork India board

Mathrani's onboarding follows resignation of Christian Lee, vice-chairman of WeWork Asia and a board member of WeWork India.

Note that WeWork global recently infused $100 million into its India business to encash the flexible workspace market.

The co-working startup had appointed Mathrani as the global CEO after it failed to launch its initial public offering and following the exit of Adam Neumann, co-founder and CEO.

According to Karan Virwani, WeWork India CEO, the company has higher vested interest and confidence in the India business.

“We had a board meeting recently with Sandeep and we are on the same page. To have the global CEO as part of our board is also about building and running the business according to the WeWork standard. There is also higher collaboration and the overall strategy which stressed on flexibility and value proposition for customers, especially after the pandemic," Virwani added.

WeWork India launched was through a brand franchise agreement and opened its first centre in 2017.

Mathrani is also perceived as a more hands-on CEO, someone who was hired primarily to turn around the company. In the last few months, under his leadership, WeWork took several tough measures in terms of cost-cutting and rightsizing the company, with a clear focus on profitability over rapid expansion, very different from how it functioned in the Adam Neumann era.

Reportedly, in August, WeWork told its employees that it has received a commitment of $1.1 billion from SoftBank.

With covid-19 and the lockdown disrupting businesses in India, the shared-workspaces sector too was hit. Physical occupancy at co-working centres is still is at only 10-12% for WeWork India and many others, as people continue to work from home.

WeWork has signed multiple lease deals with enterprise clients across cities in recent months.

To offer more flexible services and value offerings, WeWork India is launching an on-demand product, where remote workers can access space in any of its centres and get charged by the hour or even half hour. The on-demand service, which will be launched in the coming week, can be used in six buildings across Bengaluru and will be taken to other cities in the coming months. Charges for an individual for a day’s booking would cost under ₹500 and is a pay-as-you-go service.

“Flexiblity has become a huge talking point for large enterprises even at a global level. ‘WeWork On Demand’ is like an Uber-like equivalent for co-working where anyone can book a slot on the app and any individual can use it," Virwani said.

WeWork India has 34 centres with 60,000 desks. While new sales or leases are at 50% to pre-covid levels, revenue is down 20% since March.

In August, WeWork India also introduced an ‘All Access pass’ for members providing options to work from multiple locations around the world till 1 November. With the pass, members have flexibility and access to WeWork's 34 locations in India and more than 800 locations globally. Embassy Buildcon Llp is the holding company of WeWork India.