UR Work receives $58 million in its B round of financing

BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- The co-working space start-up UR Work has just received a 400 million yuan ($58 million) investment in its B round of financing, boosting its valuation estimation to seven billion yuan.

After the 400 million yuan investment was injected, the company has successfully leaped into the billion dollar unicorn club, becoming the first unicorn company in China's office-sharing business. Unicorn refers to private companies with a valuation of more than one billion dollars.

UR Work, the barely two-year-old venture has completed six rounds of financing in total, from investors including Tianhong Asset Management, Shanghai Chuanghehui Fund and Junfa Real Estate.

In the recent B round of financing, UR Work allowed its investors to invest assets in shares apart from cash investments. In one hand, this move will make UR Work more appealing to quality resources. On the other hand, UR Work will be able to better optimize its existing resources in order to further deepen its domestic market and pioneer in the overseas market, according to its founder and chairman Mao Daqing.

For UR Work, how to improve its management mode, upgrade technology and expand its international market will be on its 2017 agenda, Mao said.

In fact, UR Work started to map out its international strategy during the second half of 2016. It has plans to expand its business and set up venues in cities including Singapore, New York, London and Taiwan and build up an online office-sharing platform.

On Dec 2, 2016, International Enterprise Singapore, CaitaLand and UR Work signed a tripartite partnership. According to the Memorandum of Understanding, small and medium-sized enterprises will be able to gain an easier access process to the international market by using UR Work's office-sharing service in both China and Singapore.

So far via its website and app, UR Work covers 16 cities, facilitating hundreds of thousands members with shared office information, service and online communication access.

In 2017, UR Work is expecting to cover first and second tier cities in China and 10 cities abroad. And through domestic and overseas expansion, UR Work is ambitious in trying to become the biggest office-sharing operator in China. (chinadaily.com.cn)