- Chinese coworking brand ucommune (formerly UrWork) has acquired rival Fountown
- The transaction marks ucommune’s fifth acquisition this year
- The move will make ucommune the largest coworking brand in Asia
Ucommune announced today the acquisition of Fountown, the 5th acquisition of its kind this year. This purchase adds 26 communities in Beijing and Shanghai. The Fountown buyout has made ucommune the largest coworking brand in Asia in terms of space, number of communities and number of members.
“I am positive about the future growth outlook of the coworking economy in China given the increasing momentum of urbanisation, upgrading to a service-based economy and urban renewal,” said Dr Mao Daqing, founder and chairman of ucommune.
After the acquisition, ucommune will have over 200 communities in 37 cities, empowering over 100,000 indivuals and over 15,000 corporate members. Sharing common values of care, diversity and inclusiveness, ucommune and Fountown will cultivate a distinctive community culture characterised by symbiosis of people, space and technology.
This move comes on the heels of the Wedo, Workingdom, Woo Space and New Space transactions. Ucommune has 88 offices in Beijing and 42 in Shanghai. In Shenzhen alone, ucommune has 20 offices with 250,000 square metres. Ucommune boasts a US$ 1.8 billion valuation after pre-D round funding.
“Fountown established itself as the non-conventional provider of coworking space solutions in the competitive Shanghai market. It breaks boundaries of traditional working space by including space for residences and consumption. Fountown also has an Internet service platform to connect users with valuable business resources. This is why the acquisition makes sense to us,” said Mao.
Ucommune has 40,000 square meters of prime working space in Shanghai with 17 locations at 95% occupancy. This acquisition provides additional space for both SMEs and MNCs to expand their business with ucommune.
Fountown’s internet service platform enhances ucommune’s expertise in overseeing cross-regional business exploration and diversified financial operation capabilities to help SME and MNC clients scale up.
“The macro environment has seen significant shifts in the past three years. We have seen greater uncertainty in the economy and an increasingly competitive environment with the arrival of new entrants. Therefore, mergers and acquisitions are necessary for leading companies to maintain their competitive advantage and stay relevant to client’s requirements,” said Mao.
Ucommune established itself as a coworking space leader and integrated service solution provider within just three years of establishment. Apart from China mainland, ucommune has also been actively expanding in Hongkong and Southeast Asia, with two Singapore communities, Aya Rajah Crescent at 100% and Suntec City over 60% capacity. The first Hongkong community is expected to open in early December with another unit in Mongkok coming next year.
Ucommune has initiatives such as UBespoke (a made-to-order design consultancy) and UBazaar (an exclusive online-to-offline service). These show Ucommune’s long-term dedication to delivering smart coworking solutions conveniently to young companies as well as companies that are seeking cultural transformation. Ucommune integrates smart technology and AI into its product offering for its competitive advantage and creates a level playing field for its tenants with tech start-ups.
Ucommune is the first unicorn-level enterprise in China’s coworking industry. It has grown to cover over 200 locations in over 37 cities globally, including Singapore, New York, Beijing, Taipei, Hongkong, Shanghai. Setting the benchmark for office sharing industry brands, ucommune serves over 15,000 enterprises and over 100,000 individual members.
Ucommune members include Liulishuo (NYSE: LAIX), KEEP, Logic Thinking, JoyRun, ByteDance, Kuaishou, Tiktok, Bilibili, zhiguagua, ofo, mobike.
