IDG re-ups in Chinese co-working space provider

Kr Space spun off Chinese media company 36Kr in late 2015. It subsequently raised a Series A round from Gobi Partners, Unity VC, and US-based Colony Capital. This was followed in 2016 by a RMB200 million extended Series A from IDG and Prometheus. In 2018, the company received RMB600 million in a Pre-Series B round from China Minsheng Investment Group (CMIG), IDG, Prometheus, Colony, Unity VC, and Gobi Partners.

As of April, Kr Space has more than 40 sites in 10 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. In addition to working space, it provides legal and accounting, logistics, marketing, and cloud computing services to clients. The company offers seat leasing priced between RMB3,200 a month to RMB45 per half hour in various types of offices and meeting rooms.

The company will roll out fundraising, office management and office facilities procurement services this year, with a view to meeting the diversified needs of new economy start-ups, according to Xuequan Wang, CEO of Kr Space.

The company competes with US-based counterpart WeWork, which received $4.4 billion from SoftBank Group and SoftBank Vision Fund in 2017, including $1.4 billion in commitments to the company's China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Korea units. Homegrown player Ucommune, formerly named UrWork and raised $200 million in Series D funding last November,

Ucommune merged with industry peer New Space in 2017, in what was said to be the first merger in China's co-working space market. In 2018, it acquired domestic peer Woo Space with the valuation of the combined company said to be around $1.7 billion.

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

• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Support services
• China
• Real estate
• Infrastructure
• IDG Capital Partners
• Noah Holdings