Chinese co-working unicorn URWork closes US$179m funding round ahead of global expansion

Chinese co-working space unicorn URWork, backed by Alibaba-affiliate Ant Financial and Sequoia Capital, said it has closed a 1.2 billion yuan (US$179 million) pre-C fundraising from a group of Chinese investors, to push forward its global expansion.

The Beijing-based shared-workspace startup, a rival of WeWork, announced it received the pre-C round financing from state-owned property developer Beijing Capital Land, conglomerate Beijing Xingpai Group and Beijing Love & Health Group (also known as Beijing Aikang), as well as investment firm Jingrong Holdings.

The company declined to disclose its valuation after the new funding deal, but said in June this year that it was worth US$1.3 billion when it landed its first shared workspace deal outside of China, in Singapore.

URWork’s latest announcement comes as China has seen increasingly fierce competition between large domestic operators of co-working centres, which offer similar chic working environments, open spaces and the free use of smart services. Many of them have been in a race to grab global market share.

Adding to its planned first facility in the US in New York, URWork will soon open its second US facility in Los Angeles and expand into Hong Kong and Taiwan within the year, URWork founder and chief executive Mao Daqing told Chinese newspaper 21st Century Business Herald in June.

The company is also looking at launches in San Francisco, London, Paris and Berlin, as well as Southeast Asian countries a bid to challenge WeWork.