Unilever just launched its own co-working space in Singapore

Unilever CEO Paul Polman (L) and EDB chairman Dr. Beh Swan Gin visit the Level3 space on launch day. Photo credit: Level3.

Unilever Foundry, the international consumer goods company’s innovation arm, announced today the launch of Level3, a new co-working space in Singapore.

The 22,000-square-foot (2,040-square-meter) space is located at Unilever’s regional headquarters in Singapore’s Mapletree Business City area. It communicates with the rest of Unilever through a well of staircases, giving the impression that Level3 actually consists of several levels.

In a sense, that’s the idea. Level3 is not only supposed to be a space for startups to park their laptops and base their operations, but also for Unilever teams to visit the space easily and connect with companies and ideas they find interesting.

Currently home to 15 startups, Level3 will bring together startups, investors, and Unilever itself. “It allows us to tap into the great startup community that’s here within Singapore and helps us build a base to launch Singapore businesses or even global businesses in this region,” Jonathan Hammond, head of Unilever Foundry, tells Tech in Asia.

The space is open to startups that have a product in their hands, but it will focus on companies that work with marketing and ad tech, enterprise tech, products and ingredients, social impact, and new business models.

Eventful

For its creation and running, Unilever has partnered with Padang & Co, a Singapore-based startup that helps connect businesses to corporates and the government through events, workshops, hackathons, and more.

Besides working spaces with the usual range of storage, connectivity, and fully-stocked pantry services, Level3 will host events, workshops, fireside chats, and training sessions. It sounds like what most co-working spaces in Singapore offer, and it is – but Padang & Co CEO Derrick Chiang feels that Level3 can offer a different kind of value to startups that sign up.

“A lot of other spaces are a way to monetize property,” he tells Tech in Asia. “Our starting point for Level3 is not a real estate play – it comes from a wish from Unilever to extend what they started doing with the Foundry.”

Derrick feels that a lot of the work Padang & Co has been doing, organizing hackathons, bringing startups together with corporates, and encouraging open innovation and collaboration between businesses, lends itself naturally to Level3’s version of the co-working space.

“We realize the ability to have a physical space to do events as and when we want it, to have that control, presents very interesting opportunities,” he says. “Rather than trying to constantly think of ways to ferry people from upstairs to a tech conference, we can try to have a constant stream of content they can plug into, throughout the year.”

Photo credit: Level3.

Working together

Unilever Foundry started in 2014 and its Singapore program launched in January 2015. Through it and Level3, Unilever is looking for companies it can partner with on projects involving the company’s products or local teams.