Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Cat Johnson – Coworking Marketing Maven
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak – Competitive Advantage
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
Jeremy Fennema – Tech Innovation Alchemist
Hong Kong, 22nd March 2017:
After just 1 year of operating coworking spaces in 2 centers in Hong Kong, Campfire Collaborative Spaces has secured $6Million USD in their first seed round of financing.
Campfire will open another 3 coworking sites by Q2 2017 and has also secured sites for 2 co-living spaces. By the end of 2017, Campfire’s aggressive expansion will see it having the largest combined coworking floor space in Hong Kong.
Besides having convenient locations and sleek furnishings, what sets Campfire apart is that its centers are industry-focused. Its first space in Kennedy Town is based around the tech vertical and startups. The second location in Wong Chuk Hang is geared towards high fashion and houses many upcoming labels.
This approach will also be applied to the next three centers, which are opening by July this year. In a crowded coworking arena, Campfire’s offering is well received by tenants and investors alike.
“Campfire was conceptualized as a place where like-minded entrepreneurs can gather to share their experiences and work together, “ says Albert Fung, CoFounder and Director of Campfire. “Being industry-focused, our centers stand out in allowing for more relevant networking opportunities, events, and collaborations.”
Open coworking 24/7
In addition, Campfire prides itself on being a truly flexible coworking space. Online businesses never sleep and neither do their business owners, hence Campfire is open 24/7 for members to work as and when needed. To allow for rapid scaling, Campfire has even renovated segments of its centers to accommodate tenants.
“Our goal is to help business people to achieve their passions through hard work and perseverance. We understand that finding office space in Hong Kong can be a tough and a time-consuming process,” says Wang Tse, Co-founder and Director of Campfire. “At Campfire, we provide a unique, reliable and flexible coworking space as an easy solution for any office needs.”
While coworking seems to be a simple business, there is a high-barrier entry with plenty of competition. Start up cost is extremely high and spaces are hard to find (only an estimated 2% office vacancy in Hong Kong) – hence the need for coworking spaces. Despite that, there are almost 120 coworking spaces in operation today.
The business was co-founded by three visionaries (Albert Fung, Wang Tse, and Brian Fung) who all saw the potential of coworking in urban cities like Hong Kong. Various experienced angel investors from the real estate industry provided this round of funding. After 10 years in private wealth, Albert linked up with serial real estate entrepreneurs, Wang and Brian, to utilize their natural synergy in coming up with a coworking business that investors can get behind.
“A low-interest rate environment in Asia has resulted in many investors looking for good risk-adjusted returns. Campfire has been able to raise money from investors by offering them the opportunity to obtain above average yields with no downside really,” says Brian Fung, Co-founder, and Director of Campfire.
Not resting on their laurels, Campfire will continue to move forward at speed. Given the capital-intensive nature of the business, Campfire is looking to raise more money in order to launch more differentiated industry-focused centers to help more businesses in Hong Kong and Asia scale rapidly.
