Bengaluru: The StartUp Conference organised by BHIVE at the launch of its FinTech Venture BHIVE Investech on Thursday, February 11th evening was participated by some of the prominent names from the StartUp, FinTech and Investor Community. The Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Higher Education and IT/BT, Government of Karnataka, Dr. Ashwathnarayan C N and DCP, East Division, Bengaluru City Dr. Sharanappa SD, IPS were amongst the key guests present at the event. (For details on the conference, refer to the annexure)
BHIVEs new venture BHIVE Investech is an asset-light FinTech company aimed at democratizing the Commercial Real Estate (CRE) market by distributing ownership of high value properties. Shesh Rao Paplikar, Co-Founder and CEO, BHIVE Investech shares, Under the new venture, BHIVE will offer fractional investment opportunities through a tech platform. The platform is designed to help individuals participate with ease and ensures liquidity of the asset. Individuals can keep track of their investment through detailed information on the property/ investment product, including details on regular earning, spends etc., available on the website. The dashboard is particularly designed to make the process transparent and easy to understand, even for customers who are not familiar with the sector.
BHIVE Investech offers the Indian Middle Class an opportunity to participate in a safe high-return asset class of Commercial Real Estate. The startup is well on its way towards raising a $1 million seed fund from existing and new investors which is being used for team building, technological development, legal, compliance and marketing.
Speaking at the launch event, the Deputy CM Dr. Ashwathnarayan said, “I would like to congratulate BHIVE for doing a lot of good work. They started with co-working spaces and are gradually extending into many more areas wherever there is an opportunity and what needs to be done in that direction. Their new venture, BHIVE Investech is into democratising investment in commercial real estate and I wish them all the very best.”
The Deputy CM emphasized the role of the Karnataka government in supporting the growth of the StartUp sector and shared that $300 Billion has been earmarked for the next 5 years to develop all emerging markets going beyond Bengaluru.
Sharing the focus on the recent announcement of KDEM (Karnataka Digital Economic Mission), he said that Karnataka is the only state in the country to have implemented this 360-degree regulatory sandbox authority across all industry sectors.
He added that the new platform- Karnataka Digital Economic Mission will further enhance the support that startups and innovative firms get in Karnataka. The platform supports all verticals and also has industry associations such as Nasscom to support and channel growth opportunities. It is also progressive and a 10 year strategy is being worked on for supporting future innovations.
Sandeep Gupta, CFA, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer of BHIVE Investech says, Investech makes high value Commercial Real Estate available with amounts as low as INR 25 lakhs. These investments will not only give Fixed Deposit like monthly yields but also the Equity or Mutual Fund like long-term appreciation to retail investors.
Sandeep Gupta further added, At BHIVE Investech, our aim is to help our customers invest confidently. Our comprehensive property analytics & legal due diligence provide peace of mind to our customers. Our fully transparent tech driven platform approach enables real time visibility to an investor through personal dashboards.
Through the Fractional Investment platform, BHIVE Investech brings to the investors two products- the Hard Asset where BHIVE will facilitate direct participation in specific commercial offices in opportunistic locations through Fractional Investments. The second category is the Soft Asset where investors can look at existing BHIVE coworking spaces with flexible leases and lower lock-ins. These are also spaces where the interiors are done professionally and ergonomically, without having to spend their own Capex on fitouts.
In both cases, the investors enjoy Monthly Rentals, Low ticket size (Liquidity), Hassle Free Ownership, Appreciation Benefit, Portfolio Diversification and Lower Cost of Ownership.
Commercial Real Estate, especially the office space sector, has shown robust and resilient performance and has attracted a large amount of capital. Many giant multinational companies have already leased millions of sqft of office space in 2020. Also, pre-leasing for 2021 is on the rise. In a recent report, Knight Frank says Asia-Pacific prime office rents are likely to decline between -3% and 0% in 2021, but Bengaluru, where BHIVE is a dominant operator, is likely to see a surge in prime rents. In a way, COVID has provided more tailwinds for BHIVE Investech rather than the otherwise.
