China co-working space operators UrWork, New Space merge

It is said to be the first merger in China's co-working space market. UrWork and New Space have set up a joint holding company, but both parties will maintain their independent status and management structures after the merger. Daqing Mao, founder and CEO of UrWork, will be the chairman and co-CEO of the new entity, working alongside New Space co-founder Shengjiang Wang, a statement said. 

Mao was a vice president at Chinese real estate giant China Vanke before he founded UrWork in 2015. The Beijing-headquartered company offers office facilities and services – such as legal, accounting, marketing and cloud computing services – to start-up founders and small enterprise owners. There is also an entrepreneurship mentoring system for start-ups and multiple channels for networking and integrating resources, as well as investor introductions to help companies raise capital.

UrWork has previously raised six rounds of funding, including an angel round from ZhenFund, Sinovation Ventures and Sequoia Capital in April 2015, and a RMB200 million Series A round completed in five months after. New investors in that round included Nuoyuan Capital, Gopher Asset Management, Banyan Capital and Yung Park Capital.

Last year, it raised a RMB200 million extended Series A round as well as a RMB300 million pre-Series B round from Chinese commercial property developers Yintai Land and Zhongrong International Trust. Later in the year it also received backing from Prometheus Capital, a PE firm set up by the son of Wanda Group chairman Wang Jianlin. In January 2017, it completed a RMB400 million Series B round at a post-money valuation of about $1 billion.

Since the second half of last year, UrWork has been accelerating its overseas expansion, opening co-working spaces in Singapore, London, New York and Taiwan. The company now operates 78 offices in 20 Chinese and overseas cities, hosting more than 2,000 start-ups.

New Space was co-founded by Wang, previously vice president at commercial developer Soho China, Michael Yu, founder and president at New Oriental Education & Technology Group, and former investment banker Xitai Sheng, in 2015. Prior to the launch of New Space, Yu and Sheng founded Aplus Fund, an early-stage investment fund. Artificial Intelligence, financial technology, consumer upgrade and entertainment are the main focus areas.

In addition to co-working office facilities, New Space also acts as an incubator, providing funding to start-ups through the Aplus Fund. The company operates 20 co-working spaces in 13 Chinese cities. It has incubated over 200 projects, of which nearly 70% have secured angel or Series A round of funding.

After merger, the new entity will have over 100 co-working office spaces in 24 cities, including Beijng, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Taipei, Singapore, New York and London. It plans to reach 150 locations in 35 cities within three years, providing office sharing space for about 10,000 companies.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Real estate
• Technology
• China
• TMT
• M&A
• Sequoia Capital
• Banyan Capital
• ZhenFund