WeWork's Investment Tryst with SoftBank and its Indian Connect The Tokyo-based investor has shown immense faith in WeWork in the past and continues to do so despite a few hits and misses
By Bhavya Kaushal •
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Japanese conglomerate SoftBank's indulgence in start-ups is not new to the world. The latest to join the bandwagon is the America-headquartered, office spaces entity, WeWork. The Tokyo-based unicorn investor headed by Masayoshi Son has shown immense faith in WeWork in the past and continues to do so despite a few hits and misses.
The Grand Investment Plan
It has been reported that the start-up's investor is planning to invest an additional $2 billion dollars, a part of $16 billion dollars that were originally planned for investment on the table.
The new investment addition will make WeWork a $47 billion worth company. The planned investment is a big move for the business, however, it will come from SoftBank and not the SoftBank Vision Fund. The fund which is said to be the major backing arm behind all SoftBank investments in tech and start-ups is, unfortunately, not in the picture for this particular move. With the new capital in its kitty, WeWork also hit the headlines for rebranding itself to now three business verticals-WeWork, WeLive and WeGrow.
The Indian Connect
The American unicorn is a well-known name in the Indian subcontinent. With offices in Gurugram, Mumbai and Bangalore etc, its expansion in India has been solid and in congruence with the sudden uprising of co-working spaces in the nation. Although the establishment started with Bangalore, WeWork, founded by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey is today present in 27 countries, 96 cities spread across 539 office locations with 400,000 members.
WeWork is playing its cards right and well. Despite swell losses ballooning in the enterprise last year, it has not backed down or regressed from the business game and the Japanese group sees potential perhaps that is why it is publicly bullish towards it, the latest billion funding being a befitting testimony of SoftBank's belief in WeWork.
Another reason why WeWork has been in news is that it is in talks to own 51% stake with the Indian arm. WeWork is currently partnered with Embassy Group, founded by billionaire Jitender Virwani, and headed by his eldest son, Karan Virwani. A meeting with Neumann is supposed to take place in the third week of January to reach a conclusion and if not conclusion, then a concrete plan.
WeWork is set to have spearheaded the corporate comfortable culture. It is also one of the few companies to support and establish the idea of having gyms in offices. It has been transforming buildings into collaborative spaces for smooth business functioning and operations since 2010. Although not very old in the business world, it has shown its merit and has quickly climbed the business ladder. It has already raised $10.6 billion in investment and it has a long road to go ahead with.
