Former Sequoia partner Yinglan Tan’s new fund backs Indonesian co-working chain

Photo credit: Yinglan Tan.

On the back of a wave of co-working-related funding news comes another announcement, this time from Indonesia-based co-working chain EV Hive, which has raised US$3.5 million.

The “pre-series A round” was led by Insignia Ventures Partners – the VC firm launched recently by Yinglan Tan, a former partner at Sequoia Capital. It’s Tan’s first publicly announced investment after his departure from Sequoia.

Intudo Ventures, Pandu Sjahrir and other angel investors, as well as existing investors East Ventures, SMDV and Sinar Mas Land also participated in the round.

See: Yinglan Tan raises $25m for debut fund

With fresh funds, EV Hive plans to branch out into additional shared services like co-living and co-warehousing, and other verticals that might arise out of the community’s needs, states CEO Carlson Lau in the startup’s release.

Originally part of venture capital firm East Ventures, EV Hive spun out as an independent business earlier this year.

With seven locations and nine more currently under construction, EV Hive claims to be Indonesia’s largest network of co-working spaces.

It’s struck a couple of interesting partnerships that offer additional value: A collaboration with Singapore’s Bash allows tenants to use co-working facilities in the neighboring country, while one of EV Hive’s locations, run in partnership with Jakarta’s smart city initiative, makes it easier for entrepreneurs to meet and pitch to city officials.

EV Hive has plenty of rivals in Indonesia. Just a few days ago, co-working space operator Rework announced over US$3 million in funding. China’s co-working space UrWork participated in the round. Other local co-working chains include Freeware and Kolega.

While US-based shared-office and shared-living giant WeWork hasn’t launched its own space in the archipelago, it arrived in Singapore with a bang, acquiring local firm Spacemob and announcing plans to spend US$500 million on its expansion in Southeast Asia and Korea. Spacemob already has one location in Jakarta.