WeWork’s China Subsidiary’s Mission Accomplished As $500 Million Funding Achieved

WeWork, a co-working company, has just managed to secure $500 million in funding through a Series B round. According to Recode, this would be used to secure funding for a $5 billion-worth Chinese subsidiary. WeWork hopes to use the funding to expand operations in China and secure greater growth for the startup.

The Series B round was initiated by Trustbridge Partners. It was also rounded up by three funding sources: Hony Capital, Temasek, and SoftBank with its Vision Fund. WeWork's presence in China is through WeWork China.

The company has been steady with its vision of a larger expansion in the Asian region. This resulted in the $500 million fundraisers, which it hoped to tap from Asian investors. The co-working giant started the round and pegged its worth at around $5 billion, or about the worth of WeWork China. China is actually only one of their regional offices, according to Bloomberg. WeWork has also maintained a steady presence or had an office in Japan and in South Korea.

All three of these were aided in some way by SoftBank Group Corp. and Hony Capital also invested, worth a minority stake in the Chinese WeWork office.

WeWork offers small and large companies with easy-to-pay leases and is also in the business of designing for various companies and businesses. They've been very aggressive in expanding their business in Asia, and it's all due to SoftBank's investment-a total of $4.4 billion was funneled into the creation and strengthening of WeWork's Asian operations last year. WeWork, through the expansion, said that it sees around 40,000 Chinese customers who will avail of their services.

With funds like what the company has, it was fairly easy to expand mildly aggressively. WeWork has brought out NakedHub, a Chinese competitor, for $400 million only last April. WeWork China, through the acquisition, effectively put a leg up-so to speak-over nearest Chinese competitor UCommune. The Chinese company's funding pales in comparison to that of WeWork China.

WeWork isn't done yet, certainly. A bigger investment from SoftBank would effectively put their valuation at $30 billion more than what they're worth now. At $35 billion, WeWork China would become one of the most expensive US startups on Chinese soil.