UR Work, a coworking space provider, announced on Saturday that it closed Series A+ financing of RMB 200 million (USD 30.8 million), pushing its valuation close to RMB four billion.
Founded in April 2015, the company has already finished three rounds of financing in less than a year from VCs that include Sequoia Capital, ZhenFund, Gopher Asset Management, Hanfor and Yirun Investment.
The company provides working spaces and related services for startups. UR Work founder Mao Daqing said they help entrepreneurs engage in their businesses and reduce their total spending through this business model.
In 2015, the company launched seven projects in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Xi’an, covering 20,000 square meters and providing 3000 work stations. In 2016, it will open 35 projects in a dozen cities, with an area of 120,000 square meters. It’s predicted that by the end of 2016 UR Work will incubate 3000 companies.
“Guided by the concept of the sharing economy, UR Work will incubate 10,000 startups in the next decade and help them become stronger,” said Mao.
The investors said they see UR Work having huge market potential as the new working styles of the mobile office and shared working spaces develop very fast.
Last week, New York-based coworking space provider WeWork secured USD 430 million from China’s VCs including Hony Capital and Legend Holdings, which pushed its valuation close to USD 16 billion. It has expanded its deployment in Asian countries including China, South Korea and India. Its official website shows that it already has plans for Shanghai and Hong Kong.
The number of shared working spaces in China has increased in recent years. According to official data, incubator office space surpassed 64,966,000 square meters by the end of 2014 and over 1500 incubators had been set up around the country by 2015. In Beijing, the incubator scene is also burgeoning. Many incubators gather in the city, including Beijing Makerspace, Kr Space, Tencent Public Space, SOHO 3Q and DayDayUp.
(Top photo from Taopic.com)
