Catcha Group gets into the co-working space business

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Malaysia’s Catcha Group today revealed it has invested in a co-working space set up by one of its executives.

Catcha, along with property developer Masteron Group, now backs Common Ground, a 17,000-square feet penthouse in Damansara Heights in Kuala Lumpur that will launch in early 2017.

It will house over 50 private offices along with meeting rooms, hot-desking zones, and an extensive communal café and lounge area. The space is easily converted to an event area that will allow both members and the public to hold seminars and talks. It works like a gym membership – users pay a monthly fee, which includes access to all facilities and amenities. The fee comes in three tiers.

Common Ground was co-founded by Erman Akinci, director of business development at Catcha, and other entrepreneurs – Juhn Teo, former CEO of Guocoland’s Tower REIT, Roen Cian Nagapan of The Roof, and Rabin Nijhar of Cisco.

“Catcha Group opened its office as a communal workspace for when their operating companies were just starting up. Patrick and I noticed that our friends also started to drop by, working from our office,” recalls Erman, referring to Catcha’s co-founder and CEO Patrick Grove.

“Soon, the Catcha Group office had different people around each day, and group conversations around an idea or problem was commonplace. We realized people kept returning to the office not for the amenities, but to be part of the amazing energy we fostered in this space. That’s when we decided to recreate the experience, supporting the existing entrepreneurial community by fostering comradery and the sharing of ideas amongst like-minded people,” Erman adds.

Common Ground joins iProperty, iCar Asia, Rev Asia, and iFlix in Catcha’s portfolio. Erman used to be a non-executive director of Ensogo, Catcha’s ecommerce site network, which shut down in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong this year.

Catcha is entering an industry that has seen increased competition with the existence of traditional serviced offices like Regus and Servecorp as well as new-fangled spaces like Wework and Neuehouse.

But it doesn’t believe that the space is saturated at all. “It’s only just heating up. We believe that there are only a small handful of players regionally that have delivered on the true value proposition of co-working,” the group tells Tech in Asia.

It says the key difference it brings to the table is scale. “With the size of 17,000 sqft, [Common Ground] will be one of the largest venues in the region, which we also believe is key to fostering a dynamic community. Without scale, you will struggle to build a community. Without a great community, there is no point.”

Catcha says based on internal estimates, the co-working space market is worth approximately US$290 million in Southeast Asia, and US$29 million in Malaysia alone.

Converted from Malaysian ringgit. Rate: US$1 = MYR 4.48.