The Chinese subsidiary of coworking space, WeWork has raised a US$500 million Series B funding round led by Trustbridge Partners, Temasek, SoftBank Group, SoftBank Vision Fund and Hony Capital, according to the reports. WeWork’s big raise comes days after Hong Kong’s Campfire pulled in $18 million and Awfis in India raised $20 million.
The company launched into China two years ago and currently, it covers Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu with nearly 40 locations. It consists of 20,000 members, and it is also active in Hong Kong (Greater China).
The new capital comes from Trustbridge Partners, Singapore’s Temasek, SoftBank, SoftBank’s Vision Fund and Hony Capital. WeWork said it’ll be used for expansion into six new cities: those are Shenzhen, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, and Wuhan. This new raise is a Series B, WeWork China previously scored a $500 million Series A last year, which was also when the Chinese entity was founded.
WeWork in Greater China is adding 24 office locations and a further 10,000 members, which is the reason behind China’s figures are so impressive for just two years of operations. Now, this new capital will put WeWork’s own DNA into that network through such planned expansion spree.
“This investment will help WeWork fuel our mission to support creators, small businesses, and large companies across China. WeWork has built an incredible team in China that supports our members every day, serving as a bridge for local companies who want to reach the world as well as for global companies that want to enter the Chinese market,” mentioned WeWork co-founder and CEO Adam Neumann.
WeWork is also making its way in India — where it launched in 2017 — Korea, Japan, it operates a joint venture with SoftBank and Southeast Asia, where it made an acquisition to kick-start its presence, although the total pot for India is unknown at this point.