Japan remote workforce player oVice raises $32m
Japan’s oVice, a start-up that provides virtual co-working spaces for remote and hybrid teams, has raised JPY 4.5bn (USD 32.1m) in Series B funding featuring Jafco and Eight Roads Ventures.
SBI Investment Korea, One Capital, Salesforce Ventures, and local seed investor Miraise also participated. They were joined by Mizuho Bank and Shoko Chukin Bank. It brings total investment to date to USD 45m.
OVice describes itself as a virtual office provider. It was launched in 2020 to help give teams, disconnected during the pandemic, a common meeting point. This is said to resemble a physical office by design and features. The offering includes customisable online classrooms and event venues.
“The end goal is to create a platform that would eliminate friction in remote and hybrid workflows: employee onboarding, instant communication, and team building,” CEO Sae Hyung Jung said in a statement. “OVice is hoping to achieve this by bringing the social benefits of the physical office — visibility, accessibility, and immediacy — to online interactions.”
The company has long-term contracts with over 2,200 organisations and claims more than USD 6m in annual recurring revenue. More than 60,000 daily active users log into the platform to work in more than 30,000 spaces created since launch. The plan is to expand overseas and create new products that address both in-office work and telecommuting.
OVice’s closest competitor is US-based Gather, which brands itself as a metaverse provider and raised USD 50m from Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures last November at a valuation of USD 700m. Last Jun, it laid off about a third of its staff, according to Forbes, signalling headwinds in the segment related to a return to normal office work post-pandemic.
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