Industrious Acquires Workspace Provider TechSpace

Published on May 2, 2019 - By Cecilia Amador

• Industrious announced Thursday that it has acquired California-based workspace provider TechSpace.
• The acquisition marks Industrious’ second acquisition in less than a year; the company acquired Assemble in August, 2018.
• The flexible workspace industry has experienced high levels of M&A activity and consolidation over the past year as competition intensifies.

Industrious announced today that it has acquired California-based workspace provider TechSpace. The acquisition marks Industrious’ second acquisition in less than a year and it will add seven locations to the Industrious portfolio in California, Texas, Virginia, and New York.

Industrious acquired flexible workspace provider Assemble in August 2018.

Industrious has recently been expanding its workspace portfolio through revenue-sharing partnerships with landlords and real estate developers. Prior to the TechSpace acquisition, Industrious signed its fourth NoVa location in partnership with Carr Properties and it announced two new coworking locations in malls: The Mall at Short Hills in Short Hills, NJ and Broadway Plaza, in partnership with Macerich.

Suggested Reading: “Macerich Partners With Industrious As First Major Mall Owner To Add Flexible Workplaces In Malls Targeting Multi-property Rollout”

The TechSpace acquisition marks Industrious’ continued efforts to grow alongside its competitors.

Jamie Hodari, CEO and co-founder of Industrious stated that, “acquiring TechSpace was a strategic move for Industrious. It’s a high-performing flexible workspace provider that allows us to quickly and strategically expand our portfolio in key markets. Consolidation is going to accelerate as our industry matures and Industrious will continue to evaluate additional opportunities as they arise.”

The TechSpace acquisitions comes shortly after Knotel announced a potential $200 million series C funding round and shortly after WeWork filed paperwork that would allow it to file for an IPO.

The flexible workspace industry has experienced a boom in M&A activity which has led to increased consolidation over the past year: Knotel acquired Deskeo, SquareFoot acquired PivotDesk, OYO acquired Innov8, Flyspaces acquired Quickspaces, International Workplace Group (IWG) acquired BizDojo; Ucommune acquired Woo Space, Workingdom, and Fountown; Common Desk acquired Link Coworking, Mindspace acquired Klein Kantoor, WeWork acquired NakedHub, among plenty others.

Industrious currently operates over 65 locations across 40 U.S. cities and it has said it is looking to expand into dense, highly-affluent suburbs of major metro areas.

As the industry continues to grow and evolve, flexible workspace companies will continue to look  at consolidation as a strategic way to grow their portfolios in new and established markets, especially as operators face increased competition from landlords, REITs, malls, and hotels.

Suggested Reading: “Here’s What You Need to Know about Coworking in Malls”