Pratap Mendonca, Co-founder of Design Infinity
Interior design has become an integral part of our living and workspaces over the past few years. People moving into a new office or business, always like to brighten up the place and decorate to give it a certain vibe. With creativity and innovation, interior designers and the execution team bring life to the four walls making the environment around the place lively. Interior designers and execution teams can beautify any place and give a complete do-over. One such exemplary leader who is beautifying corporate offices since 2012 is Pratap Mendonca, Co-founder of Design Infinity. Design Infinity is one of the UAE’s top Turnkey Design, Fit-out, and Furniture solutions providers. Headquartered in Dubai, UAE provides a complete range of interior services for commercial offices, retail, healthcare, banking, and hospitality sectors.
A Passionate Architect
It all started when Pratap was 10 years old, he was very passionate to learn and observe his brother run his business. When he was 18 years old, he was keenly observing his brother starting a nursery and at 22 helped his brother to set up a restaurant from scratch. Soon Pratap joined an architecture course in India to get into real estate and become a builder and worked in Goa for a year for an architecture firm. The entrepreneur worked for a year in an office furniture dealer in Qatar and came to Dubai in 1999 and continued working as an architect for a Canadian furniture company taking care of the Middle East and India region for 6 years. He also worked as head of the design department and area manager for an office furniture dealer in Dubai for 5 years and worked with Dubai properties for a year in the sales and leasing department.
In 2007, Pratap started investing in real estate in India along with his brother and soon became an investor. “After getting 15 years of work experience in design and sales, I realized that now I can start a company and make it big. In 2012 July, along with my wife Scytle’s Fernandes (Architect) and Geetha Nayak (Architect) founded Design Infinity,” recalls, Pratap.
Since its inception, the company has grown from 2 persons to a team of 500 plus and has completed over 450 projects across UAE. In October 2015, Pratap played a major role in starting the joinery division and today it has grown to a 50,000 sqft state-of-the-art joinery, metal, and glass factory in Dubai Investment Park. Soon in 2016, he started the Abu Dhabi branch of Design Infinity. Along with that, he ventured into the healthcare sector and established Grand Infinity Medical Centre with Ashok Nayak in March 2014, and currently, the group owns two medical centers and two pharmacies in Dubai.
The Four Pillars of Design Infinity
Design Infinity provides all in-house capabilities like Design, MEP, IT, Office Furniture, Project Management, HSE, QA& QC, and Approvals. The company is specialized in undertaking large-scale and a fast-track project provides on-time completion of projects and is moving towards sustainability. The company provides a diverse range of comprehensive services with turnkey solutions related to fit-out contracting works. The services also include design and build, turnkey interior fit-outs, joinery works, and furniture.
“We are a one-stop-shop for fit-out and interior design solutions. With corporate headquarters in Dubai and the branch office in Abu Dhabi, our team represents a diverse and highly-experienced team of architects, engineers & interior designers,” says Pratap.
The company’s four growth pillars of success are quality, on-time delivery, competitive pricing, and focus on health & safety. The team mainly focuses on sustainable and innovative breakthrough design solutions that create ideal work environments. Design Infinity focuses a lot on using recyclable and sustainable products and reducing waste.
Pratap focuses on owning the responsibility, motivating and inspiring team members to do their best, focusing on self and team development, positive approach, strategic and critical thinking. He also focuses on developing innovation and creative mindset, integrity, honesty, trust, flexibility, open and interpersonal communication. He also encourages them to go beyond their limitation by being there for the team during their difficulties.
Design Infinity organizes monthly get-togethers of the teams, team-building activities, and birthday celebrations to achieve the goal of success. “Despite the difficult year in 2020, because of covid -19, we have retained all the team members. Team members’ satisfaction is of utmost importance to us and we focus on creating a Positive & Happy work culture. We have the BEST team.” says Pratap.
Future Roadmap
According to Pratap success is, “Giving my best in everything I do, going beyond my capabilities and limitation, improving every day, keep learning and keep growing and contributing to make this world a better place to live, where everyone will have basic needs like education, food, and shelter.”
As a company, Pratap aims to grow and expand the business to GCC countries, starting with a branch in Saudi Arabia in 2022 and making Design Infinity a billion-dollar Company in the next 10 years. He also aspires to establish new businesses, heading them and making them successful.