Byju’s leases 5.5 lakh sq ft office space in Bengaluru

Think and Learn, popularly known as Byju’s, has leased a 5.5 lakh sq. ft. office property at Kalyani TechPark, Bangalore, offering to pay about Rs 95 per sq. ft.

Byju’s investors include the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative and Sequoia Capital.

The agreement has an escalation clause of 5% yearly on the previous year’s rent, said Propstack, a real estate data company.

“In the last two months, the city has seen closure of big transactions. And currently, there are some big tenders floating in the market too,” said a person close to the deal.

Byju’s has leased the space from Kalyani Group in a facility on Brookfield Road, which has been the go-to micro-market for tech companies.

This is the company’s second significant deal.

Last year, it leased 4 lakh square feet from Prestige Group to consolidate its operations.

Byju’s has emerged as the dominant player in the ed-tech segment.

The country’s highest-valued start-up has spent more than $2 billion on acquisitions over the last six months, triggering consolidation in an industry that recorded traction during the pandemic.

Bengaluru is expected to witness 1 million of its total workforce of 3 million return to offices in a phased manner by the first half of 2022.

“There has certainly been more activity last quarter, primarily driven by many renewals in the market and a new startup segment that has helped propel space take-up. We expect the office segment to return to its pre-Covid momentum in the next few quarters as the Indian economy continues to strengthen,” said Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director, Knight Frank India.

According to Knight Frank, 10.8 million square feet (msf) of office space was transacted in Q1 2022 (January – March).

Bengaluru remained the foremost market with a total leasing of 3.5 msf of office space, followed by NCR, which recorded 2.3 msf of gross leasing in the first three months.