Huckletree, a coworking space in London, is set to expand next year hot off the back of a £2.4million funding round. OT takes a closer look inside its impressive new location at the Alphabeta Building in Shoreditch.
Coworking has been enjoying plenty of commercial success and headlines of late. Indeed, you’d be hard-pressed to find an investor who hasn’t heard of WeWork.
McKelvey and Neumann took what was once a niche concept and made their own version mainstream. In so doing, they played a part in raising the profile (and apparently the value) of the coworking and flexible workspace industry.
Of course, a single brand can’t take sole credit for the growth and heightened awareness of coworking. Rather, it’s a joint effort with its fair share of respected thought-leaders and visionary evangelists who, together, been working feverishly over the past decade to forge ahead with a united vision for supportive, entrepreneurial-focused and community-rich spaces.
One such dedicated individual who’s making her vision reality is Gebriela Hersham, founder and CEO of Huckletree in London.
Gabriela spoke to OT ahead of the launch of her first coworking space in Clerkenwell last year. Just 18 months later, she’s on the brink of launching a second coworking space, this time in Shoreditch at the landmark Alphabeta Building on Finsbury Square.
“Our next step is to open more spaces in creative hubs across London,” says Gabriela, who co-founded Huckletree alongside Andrew Lynch. “We already have a few locations in our sights for the next couple of years, starting with Huckletree Shoreditch in early 2016.”
This particular launch and subsequent expansion has been made possible thanks a £2.4 million funding round. According to Hersham, this was a hard-earned cash injection that’s now fuelling Huckletree’s ambitions for a new wave of community spaces across the continent: “Longer-term, we’re looking at some of Europe’s other hotspots for innovation, like Dublin, Paris and Berlin,” she added.
In addition to funding, Huckletree is bringing in a series of investor partnerships to enrich its community and keep the momentum moving forward, including link-ups with Felix Capital, Faber Ventures, and Yonder & Beyond.
As for the new space itself, it’s typical of the Huckletree ethos: community centred, curious, and really quite unique. Take a look for yourself here:
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