myHQ, the Indian commercial real estate marketplace backed by property consultancy Anarock, is targeting ₹100 crore in revenue from the Dubai market over its first three years of operations there, according to a YourStory report on 28 September 2026. The goal marks a significant step for a company that built its business helping Indian freelancers, start-ups and enterprises find flexible office space at home.
Dubai is a natural first stop for Indian companies going abroad. It is close, well connected, home to a large Indian diaspora and increasingly a base for firms that want a regional headquarters for the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. myHQ is betting that those firms, and the international companies competing with them, will need the same kind of help finding and managing office space that they need in India.
From coworking directory to real estate marketplace
myHQ started as a platform for booking flexible workspaces, aggregating coworking seats and managed offices so that small teams could find a desk or a private cabin without signing long leases. Over time, it has evolved into a broader commercial real estate marketplace.
Its offering now includes traditional long-term leasing and virtual office services, which allow companies to use a business address for registration and correspondence without renting physical space. According to an earlier interview with co-founder and chief executive Utkarsh Kawatra in Business Standard, the company also planned to add commercial strata transactions, the buying and selling of individual office units, to its platform.
That breadth matters in a market like Dubai, where companies often move in stages. A foreign firm might begin with a virtual office to complete its licensing, move to a few coworking seats as it hires its first employees, and later lease or buy a dedicated office. A platform that can serve each of those steps can capture more revenue per client over time.
Why Dubai, and why now
Kawatra laid out the rationale for international expansion earlier this year. Dubai attracts companies because of its favourable taxation, the relative ease of setting up a business and its positioning as a regional headquarters hub. The UAE introduced a federal corporate tax of 9 per cent in 2023, but its overall tax regime, including the absence of personal income tax and the availability of free zones, remains attractive to businesses and professionals.
Indian businesses have been among the most active new entrants into Dubai's commercial market for several years, making up a large share of new member registrations with the emirate's chambers of commerce. Many are small and medium-sized firms in trading, technology services and consulting, precisely the kind of clients who need flexible space rather than large bespoke offices.
The company has been candid that geopolitical risk has not deterred it. In March, when Business Standard reported myHQ's plans for Dubai and London despite the conflict in West Asia, Kawatra said the company would continue expanding.
"We are still going aggressive. Whenever there is a crisis, it is often the right time to hire and expand if you are bullish on the industry," he said.
The numbers behind the plan
In that earlier interview, myHQ projected international revenue of ₹5 crore to ₹10 crore in its first year abroad and described the long-term international opportunity at about ₹100 crore. It also set an overall five-year revenue target of ₹500 crore for the company.
The Dubai-specific target of ₹100 crore over three years suggests the company now sees the emirate alone as capable of delivering the international scale it had previously spread across multiple markets. London remains in its plans as a higher-value market, where per-seat pricing is five to six times higher than in India, according to the company.
What drives demand at home
myHQ's domestic business provides the base for its international push. The company has said that technology companies account for about 45 per cent of requirements on its platform, with banking, financial services, insurance and consulting firms increasingly adopting flexible space.
Global Capability Centres (GCCs), the offshore technology, analytics and operations hubs that multinational companies run in India, have emerged as a key growth engine. India now hosts well over a thousand such centres, and their expansion has been one of the strongest sources of office demand in cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai. Many of them use flexible space while they scale up, before committing to large, long-term leases.
myHQ is also expanding into emerging Indian markets such as Coimbatore, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Lucknow, where companies are setting up satellite offices to tap talent outside the largest metros and where flexible workspace supply is growing rapidly.
The Anarock connection
myHQ operates under the myHQ by Anarock brand, linking it with one of India's best-known real estate advisory and brokerage firms. It has also received backing from WeWork India. Those relationships give the platform access to property supply, enterprise clients and market data that a standalone start-up would take years to build.
They may prove equally valuable in Dubai. Anarock has an established presence in the Middle East through its regional real estate business, which could help myHQ secure inventory and credibility with landlords and clients unfamiliar with the brand.
The challenges of going abroad
International expansion is where many Indian start-ups stumble. Dubai's flexible workspace market is mature and competitive, with global operators, regional chains and local marketplaces all competing for the same tenants. Customer acquisition costs can be high, and landlords and clients expect local knowledge and on-the-ground service.
Regulation is another consideration. Dubai's patchwork of mainland and free-zone jurisdictions, each with its own licensing rules and office requirements, can be confusing for newcomers. That complexity is also an opportunity: a platform that simplifies it for Indian and international companies can charge for the convenience.
Geopolitical volatility in the wider region has affected business sentiment at times, and a prolonged downturn in regional demand could slow the ramp-up of revenue.
Why it matters
myHQ's Dubai ambitions reflect a broader trend among Indian technology-led service companies. Having built scale in the world's most populous country, many are looking to the Gulf as a first international market, drawn by proximity, cultural familiarity and a large community of Indian professionals and entrepreneurs.
For the Indian diaspora in Dubai, which includes founders, consultants and small business owners, a familiar Indian platform offering flexible office solutions could lower the friction of starting and growing a business. For myHQ, success in Dubai would be proof that its model can travel, and a stepping stone towards more expensive markets such as London.
