Ajay Agarwal, Partner, Geopreneur Design Studio
Fueled by the very same fortitude by which he raised his son, Ajay Agarwal, Chairman, Geopreneur Group, was instrumental in building his family business, the Agarwal Group from the tender age of 20. He has long believed that it was in his DNA to pursue the family business, which was assembled by his father. A man with countless assets and the ability to tell if the utilities are the best for the project, Ajay has worked tirelessly on operations, planning, designing, and execution part of the Agarwal Group business and still continues to do so with Geopreneur Group. An innovative man of design and eloquence himself, Ajay introduced the concept of creating show apartments in 2002, which is now very well recognized. In conversation with Dominic Rebello, he reveals, how his passion for excellence and integrity has become the foundation stone of a Group, that could lead in the sector in the coming few years.
What drives you?
When it comes to work, my inclination has always been on the expectation of the project and the finishing of it. Crafting a project is a beautiful journey and once it’s completed, the sense of fulfillment is something that drives me. I enjoy bringing innovation in terms of structure and design to a project and whether I am travelling or working, I am constantly searching for inspirations. When it comes to the real estate division of our business, which is of course the core, it’s the project execution; right from canvas to delivery is something that excites me.
How big is the potential for a business like yours?
The Real estate industry for a country like India which is developing is an integral part. The potential of creating a city’s skyline literally touches the sky. We as a group have a unique business where we not only cater to the B2C requirements of the consumers but also the B2B requirements of the industry. We house a real estate development wing, a design and architecture studio as well as a contracting wing. We recently entered financing and plan to enter brokering in future too. The aim is to create a one stop for all real estate needs anybody and everybody could have. Currently, our Architecture division is designing 1.5 million sq. ft. while being just is only 1.5 years old. Same with our contracting division, which is only 3 months old, but already, has an order book of Rs 400 crore.
How do you plan to scale up; raise funds through seed or venture capital or simply grow the old fashioned way through rising turnovers?
As such in our industry, there is no tradition of raising funds through seed or venture capital, but yes we do aggressively create debt from financial institutions to scale up our business. We are also planning an IPO in the coming years to further raise funds and grow the business.
Who would primarily be your consumer audience?
Any person who wants to buy a home or a commercial space would become our consumer. Any other individual looking to design their homes or a company looking for an architectural design or even for that matter a land scape design will also become consumer audience. Any other company or individual, who wishes to render any of our services from either the architectural wing or the contracting wing, or wants to buy a property, will be our consumer audience. On the other hand for our contracting and architectural wing it could be a builder or a developer who can avail our services. As we cater to B2B and B2C clientele.
Where do you see yourself five years down the road?
My goal is to cater to the entire Real Estate through our various divisions’ already in operations and the ones planned for the future. For Geopreneur Design Studio, our aim for 5 years down the line is to have clients who approach us for a package deal which includes hiring our architectural and interior designing services, as well as taking our services from the contracting division. In other words, a “Design & Build” model, where the initial schematic design will turn out to be exactly the way it was envisioned if the creative and building team is the same.