Bengaluru: Co-working operator Smartworks on Thursday started its biggest centre, comprising 6,000 seats, in Bengaluru as part of its expansion plan to increase capacity and meet the rising demand for shared office space across major cities in the country.

With the opening of this new facility, Smartworks has 20 centres with a total seating capacity of 33,000 and 2 million sq ft area, the company said in a statement.

“Spread over 3 lakh sq ft, with 6,000 seats, this is the firm’s largest centre located in Global Technology Park (GTP), Bellandur,” it added. This is Smartworks’ second facility in Bengaluru. The new centre has received a tremendous response, with more than 60 per cent of the space having been pre-booked by leading enterprises including Deluxe with 1,200 seats, Altron with 220 seats and Play games 24X7 with 450 seats, the statement said.

In this facility, it has introduced robotic technology to the co-working management ecosystem. Smartworks founder Neetish Sarda said: “Unlike other agile workplaces, Smartworks offers its clients a cost advantage of up to 30-40 per cent achieved through technology intervention that keeps operating costs low.”

The company’s focus is to provide spaces that are modern, technology-rich, productive, collaborative, safe and promote wellbeing, he added.

“Bengaluru has and will be a key market for us and we have plans to increase our presence here by ten-fold in the next few years,” Sarda said.

Overall, Smartworks said it plans to expand workspace portfolio to 10 million sq ft in the next 3-4 years from 2 million sq ft currently.

With 20 locations across 9 cities, the company caters to more than 500 organisations across large enterprises, SMEs, startups. Its big clients include Tata Communications, Microsoft, Arcelor Mittal, Amazon, Carrier, Otis, Daikin, Lenovo, Bacardi, and OLX.

Besides Bengaluru, Smartworks has centres in Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune.

Earlier, Smartworks had said it has invested USD 20 million in the last two-and-half years on setting up centres across big cities.

The company has become profitable with its revenue rising 15 per cent month-on-month, Sarda had said.