WeWork to open co-working space in Hong Kong’s LKF Tower and eight more Chinese cities
The New York-based start-up, with a valuation of US$20 billion, says there is no specific timeline for an IPO
WeWork, one of the most valuable start-ups in the world at nearly US$20 billion, said it will expand its presence in eight more Chinese cities and bring the popular co-working space to Hong Kong’s bustling bar district of Lan Kwai Fong this year.
The New York-based co-working space company last July received US$500 million in funding from China’s Hony Capital and Japan’s SoftBank Group, to launch its China unit and expand its operations beyond Beijing and Shanghai.
It currently has 212 physical locations in 66 cities worldwide and more than 200,000 members spanning from corporate clients to individual workers, including big names like HSBC, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings.
The eight new mainland cities that will be added to the list range are Xi’an, the capital of central Chinese province Shaanxi, “China’s Silicon Valley” Shenzhen, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Chengdu, Nanjing and Wuhan, according to Christian Lee, managing director of WeWork Asia.
“We launched our first office in Shanghai in July 2016, since then we have opened 11 more buildings in Beijing and Shanghai and we want to keep up with the expansion in China because of the incredible growth and innovation that’s been happening there,” said Lee.