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- The Instant Group is merging with key digital assets from IWG. The new, larger business will seek to IPO in 2023.
- It will create the world’s first “Work from Anywhere” solution, including more than 30,000 locations, with members able to seamlessly book meeting and office space worldwide.
- The company will be led by former England rugby captain Tim Rodber as CEO and former EY Managing Partner, Nick Land, as Chairman.
The Instant Group is creating the world’s largest independent marketplace for flexible workspace through its merger with the key digital assets from IWG plc including EasyOffices.com, Meetingo.com, Rovva and Worka. As businesses wrestle with the ‘return to office’, this global platform will empower companies of all sizes, giving their teams far greater transparency and choice about where and how they work.
The Instant Group’s newly enhanced marketplace will serve more than 250,000 businesses in 175 countries, operating 24/7 through an integrated platform in more than 40 languages. This radically enlarged marketplace will provide data and market choice that will enable “work from anywhere” plans for multi-national companies through to sole employee start-ups.
The merger will consolidate more than 25,000 workspaces and will offer a range of services to clients including membership plans, on demand, virtual offices, office booking, managed offices, and consulting capability through its acquisition of Incendium in 2019.
Tim Rodber, CEO at The Instant Group, said: “The office market has been irrevocably altered by the Pandemic and, by creating a marketplace that offers solutions for hundreds of thousands of clients, Instant will be at the forefront of this change.
“Our clients have been asking us to expand the reach and capabilities of our business to help solve the challenges of hybrid working. Similarly, our operator and landlord partners have been asking for a better route to market for their workspace products and an ability to monetise their excess capacity.
“This merger creates the largest independent global marketplace for flexible workspace and begins to directly answer these challenges, by simplifying where workers and the businesses they serve choose to work.”
The Instant Group market forecasts show that flexible workspace as a proportion of the total office market is set to grow significantly from five per cent currently to more than 12.5 per cent over the next three years. Tripling the size of The Instant Group digital marketplace will enable the business to capitalise from this growth in supply but also to radically increase the level of demand for flex space that would previously have fallen to conventional longer term leased deals.
Through the merger, The Instant Group will increase its current headcount of 300 to more than 500 employees. The Instant business has grown by 25% Compound Annual Growth Rate in the last 5 years, has award winning digital marketing capabilities and provides solutions to 45% of the FTSE 100 and 40% of the S&P 500.
To facilitate this merger IWG has agreed to purchase the interests of the selling shareholders of the Instant Group, Bowmark Capital and MML Capital Partners. The transaction will complete on Thursday 10 March 2022.
Instant’s management team will retain a significant equity stake and continue to run the business independently under the leadership of Tim Rodber (CEO) and Nick Land (Chairman). Given growth expectations the current intention is to IPO the business in 2023.
