WeWork has just announced its plans of a US$500 million investment towards a new entity, in a move focused on expansion and growth in Asia, more specifically in South-east Asia.
WeWork’s investment has manifested through the acquisition of Spacemob – a co-working space that grants its members access to the space, technology and connections necessary to build a solid foundation for their business ideas – for an undisclosed amount.
Founded in 2016, Spacemob has scaled rapidly from its original opening in Claymore last year, with Spacemob Ascent in Science Park (opened in March 2017) and its first locations in Gama Tower, Jakarta and Vietnam set to open later this year. Spacemob had previously raised USD$5.5 million in a seed funding round led by Vertex Ventures last November.
The acquisition sees Spacemob’s founder, Turochas “T” Fuad assume the role of managing director of South-east Asia for WeWork, helping the company to enter markets within the region. This is Fuad’s third startup and third sale, after travelmobs’ acquisition by Homeaway in 2013 and Wuf Networks by Yahoo! in 2004.
The benefits of this new deal work in multiple directions. The Spacemob acquisition grants WeWork direct access into South-east Asia, through its regional team that can localise their services to cater to each market’s unique needs and requirements.
It complements WeWork’s other efforts to build a footprint into Asia more broadly, after it had reportedly raised US$500 million from SoftBank and Hony Capital to expand across Japan and China in July 2017.
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n an international level, Fuad believes WeWork’s steps to become more global will help to facilitate other companies build their international footprint as well. “It will help global companies expand to South-east Asia in a cost effective and flexible way, while allowing them to tap into the local/regional network that we’re setting up.”
On a member-level, the investment will have a much more tangible impact on the entrepreneurs, small business owners, freelancers and startups that make up the bulk of co-working space memberships.
Spacemob’s own online community will gain access to WeWork’s admittedly much larger equivalent, comprising of over 130,000 members in over 155 locations in 50 cities across more than 15 countries. This will give them a real chance to connect with other members internationally; not least it can enable local and regional companies to scale more effectively too.
Exactly how it intends to merge the two communities together is still under development, however the potential is clearly promising.
When asked how WeWork’s acquisition would affect how Spacemob operates, Fuad said, “Our commitment to our members remains the same – we’re still focused on building foundations for businesses across South-east Asia – but it is now going to take place at a much faster pace.”
It works perfectly with Spacemob’s ethos of creating a co-working community beyond a physical workspace. In Fuad’s eyes, this could catalyse the rate at which business ideas can be shared and developed, as members will be able to consult and work together to bring their visions to life.
