Latest fundraising pushes UR Work’s valuation over 1$bn
Rising rents, cutthroat competition and increasingly impatient investors heaping huge financial pressure on co-working space providers
UR Work, China’s equivalent of the world’s largest co-working space provider, US-based WeWork, has completed a series-B fundraising worth US$581 million (4 billion yuan), that valued the company at US$1.02 billion, making it the country’s first so-called “unicorn” (a start-up firm with worth more than a US$1 billion) in the domestic sector.
The Beijing-based brand attracting five investors including Tianhong Asset Management, the sole partner of online giant Alibaba in the sale of popular Yu’ebao money market funds , and Junfa Property, a Yunnan property firm.
Yu’eBao is sold on Alibaba’s Alipay platform, and can be used to make credit-card payments and buy products. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
UR Work’s fresh fundraising comes just six months after its last, which valued the company at
nearly US$800 million. So far the firm has held six fundraising rounds that have generated an enviable investors list, including Sequoia Capital, Zhen Fund and Gopher Asset.
