The Startup Ecosystem in Mumbai :: Interview with The Empire Business Centre
Mumbai, the 12 million mega-city on the west coast of India, has steadily started to be recognized as a hub for entrepreneurship, welcoming many startups in the recent years. With an emerging focus on innovation in technology, ecommerce and products, Mumbai becomes an attractive destination for many early stage companies, looking to settle their idea and team in a place can support and nurture their growth. This is where our eOffice partner – The Empire Business Centre, comes in place, offering a range of workspace solutions and services tailored to offer flexibility in the best location in Mumbai.
To learn more about the startup climate in Mumbai we sit down with Amit Vaid from The Empire Business Centre who also takes us through their expansion plans for 2016.
eOffice: How is the startup ecosystem in Mumbai?
Amit Vaid: With a growing number of startups being created in India each year, the country is bustling with more startup energy than ever. And playing a very important role in India’s burgeoning startup scene is its financial capital – the city of Mumbai.
The most notable example of Mumbai’s successful startups is Housing.com, a company that has quickly shed its startup tag in three years and grown into an 800-member organization. Apart from Housing, the city has also seen other innovative startups in fields such as ecommerce, analytics and consumer-focused services
eOffice: What types of companies do you most often see emerging?
Amit Vaid: The startups in Mumbai mostly revolve around the financial, consumer services, digital, media and retail sector, and the ecosystem is frequently compared to that of New York.
The abundance of venture capitalists, growth funds, educational institutions and incubators has propelled Mumbai’s growth in the startup scene.
eOffice: What does Empire Business Centre offer to your members?
Amit Vaid: At TEBC, we are concentrating on customized space offerings and accommodating clientele with a requirement of as big as 30 to 50 workstations. The office is customized as per the client’s requirement. Client’s saves huge money on Capital Expenditure and also avoids the hassle of maintaining the space. I have shared few pictures of these offices through Google Drive. Apart from this, we do cater to the usual traditional business of a co-working service provider such as, Virtual Office Services, Meeting and Conference Room, smaller private offices (1 – 9 seater) in open plan seating, etc. We go out of our way to assist clients with Company Formation, Recruitment, Procurement of IT Equipments, etc. making their initial set-up process easy and quick. We invite all our in-house clients, business partners, prospective clients for meet & greet – cocktail dinner parties every quarter, which helps in networking & sharing ideas.
eOffice: What are your expansion plans for 2016?
Amit Vaid: 2016 will be the year of expansion for TEBC. Our 2nd centre is under planning stage & we are focusing on Netspacing on a large format.
Netspacing is done for the clients who need small areas (1000 – 3000 sq ft carpet) in prime locations. We rent the space for the client or split our bigger space for two or three such clients and create spaces for them similar on lined of fully furnished managed option or serviced office. This concept is picking up as in prime area the floor plates available are huge and clients either end up paying extra money or going to inferior options.
Market potential for three types:
:: The market for these options are SME which don’t have big CAPEX.
:: This concept is getting very popular with MNC which are entering India as their initial investment gets less. They don’t have to hire extra man force which are not needed like security, housekeeping, reception & admin services. This also saves the hassle of dealing with multi vendors and helps them to work with one stop shop
