BEIJING, Nov. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Asia's fastest-growing and largest co-working space today announced US$200mn in D-round funding, three months after its previous funding round, making it the largest single round so far.
This round of funding is led by All-Stars Investment Limited, which focuses on China's internet industry and consumer sector, followed by CEC Capital, a leading investment bank and institutional investor in China, with PE investment and M&A consulting as its core business. The funding will further accelerate ucommune's expanding global footprint, strengthen its research and development capabilities, improve its ecosystem, and advance its IoT smart office technology.
The D-round funding comes on the heels of the acquisition of Fountown which increased ucommune's total number of workstations to 100,000. This means the total working hours clocked in ucommune's spaces has reached up to 800,000 hours per day and 300 mn hours per year. Annual revenue of 2018 estimates to achieve ca 300% growth compared with last year.
"There is strong growth potential in the coworking and smart working technology sectors, bolstered by China's urbanization, industrial upgrading and consumption upgrading. The recent funding from leading institutional investors in China is recognition of our leading position and operational capabilities and validation of the growth potential of coworking sector in China. The investors value ucommune's innovation capacity in developing the coworking ecosystem and smart office technology, as well as the instrumental role in enabling the collaboration between industrial players across the entire value chain," said Dr. Mao Daqing, founder and chairman of ucommune.
"CEC Capital has been working with ucommune since the A round and has witnessed the exponential growth of this China's coworking pioneer. We are confident that ucommune will chart its path to becoming a true global leader in coworking space," said Mr.Wang Kai, founder and CEO of CEC Capital.
"The D-round investment in ucommune is testimony to our confidence in the brand. We are not just investing in the coworking concept itself, but also the innovative entrepreneurs seated behind each desk. Drawing on the strengths of its membership and growing footprint, we are confident that ucommune will enable more startups, SMEs and unicorns to innovate, grow and collaborate on this growing cross-border platform," said Ji Weidong, founder and CEO of All-Star.
Ucommune has been committed to building a coworking ecosystem and intelligent office technology platform. To date, ucommune has over 200 coworking spaces in 37 cities, with nearly 15,000 company and SME members accounting for a total area of 730,000 square meters. Over the next three years, ucommune is expected to expand to 350 locations in 40 cities, providing nearly 200,000 workstations and a total area of 1.3 million square meters.
An integrated coworking solution provider, ucommune also offers bespoke architectural and interior design service, express financing, and SaaS solutions to maximize efficiency for Chinese enterprises. The company has invested heavily in the development of IoT development, big data, integration of up and downstream services, enabling over 100,000 members across sectors to share information, collaborate, communicate and innovate together.
Ucommune is the largest co-working space in Asia and a strong brand in China. Setting the benchmark for office-sharing brands, ucommune is home to NYSE-listed Liulishuo, and boasts members such as KEEP, Logic Thinking, JoyRun, ByteDance, Kuaishou, Tiktok, Bilibili, Zhiguagua, ofo, mobike, Horizon Robot, Amazon China etc.
All-Stars Investment Limited invests in "all-star" companies in China's Internet and consumer brand sectors. Its core team comprises ex-Morgan Stanley executives, who have played active roles in many significant tech or Internet IPOs, such as Tencent and Alibaba. All-Stars currently manages assets worth US$2 billion and has invested in industry heavyweights Xiaomi, Didi Chuxing, Tujia, SenseTime, Full Truck Alliance, Grab and Lufax.
Founded in 2000, CEC Capital is a leading investment bank focusing on TMT, consumer and health sectors with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, equipped with a US brokerage license. CEC Capital has completed more than 300 transactions with a total accumulated transaction value of over US$28bn. CEC Capital also manages renminbi and US dollar funds. Its portfolio companies include Suning, Didi Chuxing, Arrail Dental, The Beast Shop, WeRide.ai (formerly known as JingChi.ai), and MissFresh.
