Accidental entrepreneur

THE CO-FOUNDER OF ONE OF INDIA'S LARGEST MANAGED WORKSPACE PROVIDERS CHOSE TO GO OFF THE BEATEN TRACK THAT MOST WOMEN IN SMALL-TOWN INDIA STILL FOLLOW

- AYANTI BERA

WHEN MEGHNA AGARWAL co-founded IndiQube nearly a decade ago, India's flexible workspace industry was still nascent.

Co-working was largely synonymous with freelancers and early-stage startups crammed into shared offices. But the need for scalable, service-rich, and end-to-end managed office spaces was growing fast, particularly in large cities where global capability centres were quickly climbing in numbers.

Today, IndiQube is one of India's largest managed workspace providers, with over 8.7 million square feet under management across metros and tier-2 cities. Earlier this year, the company listed on the public markets, a milestone that not only validated its business model but also underscored the growth of the flexible workspace industry in India.

For Agarwal, the journey has been as much about her own grit and vision as it has been about adapting to an industry constantly tested by shifting work cultures, global headwinds, and the pandemic. An entrepreneur by accident and not by choice, Agarwal hails from a small town in Rajasthan, where women were expected to marry young and settle down.

“I saw all my cousins getting married at the age of 18,” she recalls, in an interview with FE. “I knew very early that I didn’t want that life. I had to get out of Alwar, and the only way to do that was to work hard and become financially independent.” Her parents, though traditional, were supportive of her ambition to pursue education.