Co-working unicorn WeWork acquires local counterpart Spacemob to expand to Southeast Asia

Photo credit: Spacemob.

Co-working space startup WeWork continues its Asian expansion. The US company announced today it has acquired Singapore-based counterpart Spacemob, which followed a very similar model to WeWork.

The terms of the deal are not disclosed.

Spacemob has a similar approach to WeWork’s on co-working spaces. Founder and CEO Turochas “T” Fuad will remain with the new company and become WeWork’s managing director for Southeast Asia. In that role, he will oversee the company’s US$500 million expansion in the region. The allocation will also cover Korea.

Spacemob had raised US$5.5 million last November in a seed round led by Vertex Ventures. It planned to use the funds to expand further in Southeast Asia, with spaces in Indonesia and Vietnam about to open soon.

The announcement comes almost right after WeWork’s entry into China, where it’s backed by SoftBank and Hony Capital to the tune of US$500 million, and India, where it’s set up WeWork Galaxy in Bangalore.

WeWork’s move into Southeast Asia has been expected for a while. Japan is also one of the company’s key destinations in the continent.

There are co-working spaces aplenty in Singapore and Southeast Asia, including the Hub, the Working Capitol, Collision 8, the Great Room, and many more. Besides Spacemob, Flyspaces is another one that’s closer to WeWork’s model. There are also networks like Loop, which aim to create a Netflix-like subscription for access to several different spaces across Asia.