China-based working space provider Ucommune plans to go public later this year, potentially allowing property developers Prosperity Holdings, Junfa Group, Yintai Land and Dahong Group to exit, The Information reported yesterday.
The company has hired investment banks Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase to oversee the initial public offering, which is expected to take place in New York and which will value it at $3bn, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Formerly known as URWork, Ucommune runs a network of more than 200 co-working spaces across 37 cities in China, the US and Singapore, offering desks in shared spaces, private offices and even an option to base a company’s headquarters across an entire floor.
The IPO would come in the wake of a $200m series D round in in November 2018 that valued Ucommune at about $3bn, taking its total funding to approximately $715m. Investment firm All-Stars Investment led the series D round, which included investment bank CEC Capital.
The series D came just three months after a $43.5m round led by industrial and real estate group Prosperity Holdings that may have included RK Properties, a property development branch of infrastructure developer Road King Infrastructure, at a $1.8bn valuation.
Gopher Asset Management, CIC Hanfor, Sequoia Capital and ZhenFund provided Ucommune’s earlier funding, which was followed by a $46m investment by Yintai Land and investment firm Zhongrong International Trust in 2016.
Ucommune received $58.4m from Junfa,Dahong Group and Tianhong Asset Management, an affiliate of financial services provider Ant Financial, in addition to Shanghai Chuanghehui Fund and Tianming Shuangchuang Technology in early 2017.
The company added $58m from conglomerate Beijing Xingpai Group in May 2017, before securing $178m in a pre-series C round co-led by Prosperity Holdings, conglomerate Aikang Group, property developer Beijing Land Capital and media company Star Group in September the same year.
Qianhai Wutong Mergers and Acquisitions Funds, CKing Home-Key Investment Group and Context Lab provided a further $46.5m in December 2017, before Qianhai Wutong supplied $17.3m in February 2018.
Photo courtesy of UCommune (HK) Limited.
