Malaysia-based co-working spaces operator WORQ has secured RM10 million (US$2.4 million) in fresh investment from seven follow-on investors, including its returning backer Phillip Capital.
In 2018, the firm had secured RM10 million in a crowdfunding round from Bangsawan Consulting and Phillip Capital.
WORQ, which has also secured loan offers from six banks including Affin, will use the fresh capital to grow its space under management 10-fold to one million square feet, it said in a press note.
The company was founded in March 2017 by Stephanie Ping and Andrew Yeow.
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Since its previous fundraise, the company claims to have grown its footprint 7x and revenue by 560 per cent and has been profitable.
With its sustainable model, WORQ is able to help turnaround loss-making spaces even in quiet locations. It has made an acquisition of another flexible space into its portfolio for this purpose.
It is also looking to inorganically expand its portfolio via acquisitions and partnerships with other co-working space operators and landlords.
The Kuala Lumpur-headquartered firm has expanded its services to include WORQ Enterprise, a space-on-demand division dedicated to consulting and customising workspaces for companies. These integrated solutions help companies save up to a staggering 30 per cent in costs every month.
“WORQ sells office usage to companies one desk at a time, eliminating the need to rent and fit out an office. WORQ’s space-on-demand solutions allow companies to implement a distributed work style. In this new environment, WORQ can sell one desk multiple times over and increase efficiency of space usage,” said Ping.
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The company will soon be launching its proprietary community app SPARQ to create an online-offline experience for its users.”This spawns local communities everywhere, thereby canvassing the globe with productive hyper-localised communities all over the world. Ultimately, WORQ’s vision is to help people prosper by working together,” Ping added.
The company has earlier received funding from the likes of Cradle Fund, SMG (investment holding company co-founded by the founding partner of Jungle Ventures), and 500 Startups.
According to global real estate giant JLL, flexible office spaces only make up one per cent of Kuala Lumpur’s total office space. JLL estimates that flexible space demand will accelerate due to COVID-19, predicting that 30 per cent of all office space will be consumed flexibly by 2030. WORQ estimates that the flexible office market in Malaysia will grow to RM3 billion (US$722 million) by then.
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Image Credit: WORQ
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