Co-working space provider WORQ in discussion to raise $8.5 M Series B funding

According to its co-founder on Monday, WORQ, a co-working space provider with headquarters in Malaysia, is in talks to raise $8.46 million (MYR40 million) for its Series B fundraising round.

“We are actually in discussions, still in the midst of discussions with a couple of investors. The round is still targeted at MYR40 million,” Andrew Yeow, who is also the Chief Financial Officer, told reporters.

“At the moment, we do get a lot of landlord partners who are keen to have us in their spaces. The urgency for that [fundraising] is not as urgent anymore. And also, we don’t run on a runway because we are profitable,” WORQ Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Ping explained. “So we try to get the best deal for ourselves.”

With the support of 14 follow-on investors, WORQ declared in October of last year that it had successfully concluded its pre-Series B fundraising round.

Leading the pre-Series B round was asset management company Phillip Capital, which made its third consecutive investment in WORQ and its largest placement to date. The Leong family office of Malaysia-listed real estate developer Mah Sing Group is one of the other investors.

According to its LinkedIn page, WORQ’s previous investors included, among others, Cradle Fund, SMG, and 500 Global through its subsidiary 500 Durians LLC.

WORQ opened its eighth location at Sunway Putra Mall on Monday, launching a strategic partnership with the shopping center. The 20,000-square-foot store has been fully occupied since its January opening.

Sunway Group is looking into additional collaboration opportunities with WORQ, according to Clement Chen, CEO of Sunway Real Estate Investment Trusts.

“It has been a very happy partnership so far. On that basis, there’s no reason we shouldn’t explore further. I understand that the teams are talking,” he said, adding that such collaboration may not be limited to Sunway REIT’s properties but the entire Sunway Group’s properties.

Listed on Bursa Malaysia’s Main Market, Sunway REIT is one of the country’s biggest diversified real estate investment trusts (REITs), with a varied portfolio spread across integrated townships in Greater Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Perak. With its main operations in real estate, construction, healthcare, education, retail, and hospitality, Sunway Group is a conglomerate based in Malaysia.

With a 23 percent market share, WORQ hopes to run up to 450,000 square feet of co-working space by 2025 as demand for co-working spaces grows. Additionally, it wants to grow its “space under management” to one million square feet by 2028, accounting for more than 35 percent of the market. As of right now, Yeow stated, WORQ had 200,000 square feet of “space under management”.