UrWork, the China-based working space provider backed by real estate developers Junfa Group, Yintai Land and Dahong Group, raised $58m from undisclosed investors yesterday, Bloomberg has reported.
UrWork operates a network of 78 co-working spaces across 20 Chinese cities. It was founded by Mao Daqing, formerly a vice-president of property developer China Vanke, who seeks to leverage his experience and contacts in the industry to locate affordable, quality spaces to open offices.
The company agreed a merger with New Space, a company that mixes working space provision with incubation services, last month, with a view to creating a $1.3bn company. It intends to expand into Singapore, Los Angeles, New York, London and possibly Taipei by the end of 2017.
In addition to competing against homegrown rivals such as CoWork, the UrWork is also fending off an entry into the Chinese market by the US-headquartered WeWork, which has raised $1.7bn from a China-heavy investor base.
UrWork has now received approximately $233m in funding since it was founded in 2015. The round follows a $58m round in January this year that included both Junfa and Dahong, and which valued the company at a reported $1bn.
Tianhong Asset Management, which operates as an affiliate of financial services provider Ant Financial, also invested in the January round, as did Tianming Shuangchuang Technology and Shanghai Chuanghehui Fund.
Yintai Land took part in a $46m pre-series B round in June 2016 that also featured Zhongrong International Trust, and which came after earlier funding from Gopher Asset Management, CIC Hanfor, Sequoia Capital and Zhen Fund.