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COWORKIES, an online platform that connects coworkers and improves the experience of coworking for space owners and members, is planning to expand in a fast growing sector that now consists of more than 7,000 coworking spaces globally and a community of over half a million people. By 2018 it is expected that this number will rise to more than 37,000 coworking spaces and a community of more than two million people 1 .
COWORKIES was launched this year by Pauline Roussel, Nikola Velikov and Dimitar Inchev and currently has 50 coworking space partners across 10 international cities which include Milan, London, Barcelona, Berlin, Sofia, Ljubljana, Paris, New York, San Francisco and Taipei. The platform helps entrepreneurs find the right space where they can meet and work with like-minded people, share work opportunities, discover and exchange products and ideas. COWORKIES also allows coworking space owners and managers to build space where they can reach out to their core audience, promote their space and be an active contributor to the future of entrepreneurship.
Research carried out by COWORKIES 2 to gauge the current views of coworkers, revealed that 57% of existing coworkers are currently in a coworking space for the very first time. This figure rises to 62% for female coworkers. More than three in five (61%) coworkers choose a coworking space to grow their network. The figure rises slightly to 62% for male coworkers but falls to 53% for their female counterparts.
There are around 1.4 million British freelancers working across all sectors, representing an increase of 14% in the past decade. It is estimate that the flexibility offered by Britain’s freelancers is worth £21 billion to the UK economy in added value 3 .
Pauline Roussel, CEO and Co-Founder at COWORKIES, said: “We are really excited by the surge in interest for coworking and coworking space. Coworking space owners are very eager to promote their space but reaching out to their core audience today is complicated as there are too many different platforms, none really targeting the coworking niche. Connecting coworking communities is always a challenge as members rely on Community Managers to integrate inside the space but also within each city.”
The research showed that 56% of respondents chose to cowork because they want to avoid being alone at home while for just over a quarter (28%) said it was because they wanted to find more work opportunities.
COWORKIES’ research also found that three in five (60%) choose their existing space solely because of the location while more than half (54%) highlighted the benefits of being in the same space as current companies and people. A third (34%) cited the low price as a reason and a quarter (26%) said they were recommended the space by a friend.
More than two thirds (69%) of coworkers connected with other workers for the first time through community events organised by their coworking space. Indeed 45% used community events to source help within their community space while two in five (39%) asked for help using the online tools that are provided by the coworking space. 14% use job boards inside their existing coworking space.
In order to boost its expansion plans, COWORKIES recently announced that it is partnering with Seedrs, the UK’s No.1 equity crowdfunding platform, to open a crowdfunding round to raise €100,001. The money raised will be used to enhance the platform, add new features requested by spaces and coworkers and develop mobile apps to improve the peer to peer communication. Nikola Velikov, Co-Founder at COWORKIES, said: “We love what we do. We are passionate about the coworking community and we follow the evolution of working environments. Our research has identified that entrepreneurs are using coworking space to extend their network but want tools to communicate with other members which include attending community events.”
Dimitar Inchev, Co-Founder at COWORKIES, concluded: “We believe that we have built a platform that not only connects likeminded entrepreneurs but that will also improve their future business prospects. With our crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs, we are excited to showcase our brand to a fertile entrepreneurial base coupled with coworking spaces and their owners that can share in our future success by taking small ownership of the platform.”
About COWORKIES
COWORKIES is an open platform dedicated to all coworking space members / target crowd around the globe. It delivers specialist services to every single coworker out there. The company is focused on the people inside the coworking space and their needs and not on the spaces themselves. COWORKIES wants to be their daily facilitator in growing their business and their network.
