Knotel installs AECOM real estate alum to lead enterprise business

The move comes as the flexible-office startup attempts to increase its reliance on corporate clients

Vik Aggarwal and Knotel CEO Amol Sarva
Vik Aggarwal and Knotel CEO Amol Sarva

In its bid to solidify its focus on large companies and draw in big name clients, Knotel has hired a corporate real estate executive to lead its enterprise division.

Vik Aggarwal, who most recently worked as a vice president at AECOM managing finances for the firm’s global real estate portfolio, was hired to bring in prominent clients as strategic partners and to oversee the management of their global real estate portfolios, Knotel said Tuesday.

Aggarwal has also held roles at BlackRock, American Express, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Johnson & Johnson and Alcatel-Lucent.

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The New York-based Knotel has raised $160 million and, with a valuation of $500 million, is backed by landlords Newmark Knight Frank and The Moinian Group, and other venture capital firms.

Many flexible office firms­ – having graduated from offering desks to freelancers and small startups – are focusing their business on enterprise clients. WeWork, which recently appointed a London-based chief operating officer, Eugen Miropolski to emphasize its international focus, now says that more than a third of its members work for companies of 1,000 employees or more.

Since it launched in 2016, Knotel now has 3.5 million square feet across 200 locations in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Berlin and São Paolo.