NEW YORK & TOKYO & SHANGHAI-Saturday 28 July 2018 [ AETOS Wire ]
(BUSINESS WIRE)-- WeWork Companies (“WeWork”) today announced a $500 million Series B investment in WeWork China led by Trustbridge Partners (“Trustbridge”), Temasek, the SoftBank Group (“SoftBank”), the SoftBank Vision Fund (“Vision Fund”) and Hony Capital. This funding will accelerate WeWork’s growth in China, allowing the company to serve more entrepreneurs, creators, and enterprises across the region through the unparalleled design, technology, hospitality and local community WeWork provides.
In the two years since opening its first location in China, WeWork has become a trusted local partner to creators and businesses of all sizes, providing 20,000 members across nearly 40 locations in three cities with the community, culture, and services to start and scale their operations. WeWork has also enabled more global businesses to have a presence in China, and helped Chinese businesses to both scale within the country and expand around the world. In July 2017, WeWork announced the creation of WeWork China, with a $500 million Series A investment from Hony Capital and SoftBank dedicated entirely to accelerating WeWork’s expansion across China.
“We are grateful to our partners at Trustbridge, Temasek, SoftBank, and Hony for their belief in our vision and their support of our business. This investment will help WeWork fuel our mission to support creators, small businesses and large companies across China. WeWork has built an incredible team in China that supports our members every day, serving as a bridge for local companies who want to reach the world as well as for global companies that want to enter the Chinese market. While there is still much to do and learn, this investment highlights the potential for WeWork and our community of creators in the region and reaffirms our dedication to our team, our members and our partners in China,” said WeWork Co-Founder and CEO Adam Neumann.
“Trustbridge is pleased to join the WeWork China team. Through its thoughtful design, technology, hospitality and most importantly community, WeWork is paving the way for a new future of work in China and supporting the transformation from Made in China to Created in China. Whether entrepreneurs are just starting out, Chinese companies are looking to take their business global, or international enterprises want to do business here, they know WeWork is the local partner they need,” said Feng Ge, Managing Partner of Trustbridge Partners.
“Adam Neumann’s vision has always been for WeWork to be a global company with a local playbook, and nowhere is that more clear than in China where WeWork has developed an impressive offering. From its strong leadership team to locally-tailored technology integrations and community-based design, WeWork has demonstrated that it understands what businesses in China need to succeed. Through this investment, we look forward to WeWork continuing to support many more companies of all sizes across China,” said Ronald D. Fisher, Director, Vice Chairman of SoftBank Group Corp.
“Over the past two years, we’ve seen what WeWork’s growing presence in China can accomplish. WeWork is a global connector bringing entrepreneurs, startups and large enterprise companies from around the world together, a local partner supporting Chinese entrepreneurs and attracting new businesses to invest in China, and an innovator reimagining the workspace through its cutting-edge design, technology and community-focused culture. With our continued investment, we know WeWork will continue to lead in the future of work,” said John Zhao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hony Capital.
About WeWork
WeWork provides its members around the world with space, community, and services through both physical and virtual offerings. From startups and freelancers to small businesses and Fortune 500 companies, our community is united by a desire for our members to create meaningful work and lead meaningful lives—to be a part of something greater than ourselves. Co-founded by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey in New York City in 2010, WeWork is a privately held company with over 5000 employees. Follow us @WeWork on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook or visit wework.com to learn more.
About Trustbridge
Trustbridge Partners is a leading growth equity fund that focuses on investing in high-quality growth opportunities in China. Founded in 2006, Trustbridge currently manages approximately $8 billion in assets from leading university endowments, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and strategic industry partners. Our investment philosophy is built upon a fundamental understanding of long-term trends in demographics, technology and structural changes. We adopt a unique ecosystem-driven approach and concentrate in the Internet, content / education, and healthcare sectors where we believe our deep insights and strong industry relationships help generate unique investing opportunity sets.
About Temasek
Incorporated in 1974, Temasek is an investment company headquartered in Singapore. Supported by 11 offices internationally, Temasek owns a US$235b portfolio as at 31 March 2018. Our portfolio covers a broad spectrum of industries: financial services; telecommunications, media & technology; transportation & industrials; consumer & real estate; life sciences & agribusiness; as well as energy & resources. Investment activities are guided by four investment themes and the long term trends they represent: Transforming Economies; Growing Middle Income Populations; Deepening Comparative Advantages; and Emerging Champions. For more information on Temasek, please visit www.temasek.com.sg
About Hony Capital
Hony Capital, founded in 2003 and sponsored by Legend Holdings, specializes in buyout investment. Partnering with the world’s leading investors, it focuses on the development of China’s real economy with “Value creation, Price Realization” as its investment philosophy. Hony Capital currently has USD 10 billion under management, with investors from China and the world’s leading investment institutions, including national pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, university endowment funds, regional and industry pensions, insurance companies, family foundations, individual investors and other types. Hony Capital puts China as its top market, with investments in over 100 companies in areas of pharmaceutical and healthcare, media and entertainment, consumer products, food and beverage, as well as machinery and equipment manufacturing. Hony Capital’s portfolio companies include China Shijiazhuang Pharmaceutical Group (CSPC), Zoomlion, China International Marine Containers (CIMC), Suning, Chengtou Holding, Jin Jiang International Hotels, ENN, PizzaExpress (UK), STX(US) , WeWork (US) , ofo, COFCO Capital, etc. The assets value of these companies totals about RMB 2.9 trillion with sales volume of RMB 860 billion, providing more than 450,000 jobs.
Contacts
WeWork
Dominic McMullan / Gwen Rocco / Jenny Chan
press@wework.com
or
Trustbridge
Public Relations
pr@trustbridgepartners.com
or
Hony Capital
Victoria Li
victoriali@honycapital.com
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