- About 50 co-working spaces, which together operate more than 200 properties in Bengaluru, have come together
- The overall objective of the association is to make sure that everyone in the co-working ecosystem survives
MUMBAI: As the covid-19 pandemic threatens to cripple their businesses for many months, co-working spaces in Karnataka have banded together to negotiate rents with landlords and tenants and lobby the government for relief.
About 50 co-working spaces, which together operate more than 200 properties in Bengaluru, have come together to form the Co-working Association of Karnataka (CAK), said Shesh Rao, co-founder and chief executive officer of Bhive (Tusker Workspace Pvt Ltd), one of the firms that is part of the association.
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“Co-working is one of the industries that has seen a very high impact from covid-19. The reason is that a lot of our own customers, be it MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) or startups, have themselves seen a decline in business, and many of them are unable to pay rent,” Rao said.
“There are other issues like negotiating with dozens of landlords and government bodies. The severity of the crisis requires a coordinated response. We’ve realised that if we don’t work together our industry can collapse.”
Source: livemint
