The money was meant to be used by workspace market app GorillaSpace and was received from Mitsubishi Estate Co's own seed funding round, which had garnered quite the attention.
Silversea Media Group, a Singapore-based interactive media company, was one of the active investors, among others. The investment from MEC was discovered to be part of an ongoing initiative to create awareness about other business projects and to "develop synergy" with already existing businesses.
The MEC had already committed around $100 million to various investments, including the GorillaSpace investment. GorillaSpace is eyeing expansion into other places, most notably Hong Kong, which it believes is primed for the Airbnb-like experience and co-workspace leasing lifestyle.
This was allegedly the preferred model for growing companies which are still in a "flexible leasing" situation, at least until their budget grew to afford long leasing terms.
The platform maintained by the company enables teams or groups of workers with similar passions to look for the right workspace without commission, according to SCMP. This means that start-ups and growing businesses with low budgets can enjoy working in a secure office environment. Furthermore, the company believes that it can successfully "disrupt" the Hong Kong office leasing landscape.
The startup came from a husband and wife team and had chosen the model of allowing landlords and tenants to connect directly online. This model, according to them, had been used successfully with various co-working and office spaces located in their city-state of origin. The funding from Japanese real estate developer Mitsubishi Estate was the last thing they needed to break out, it seemed.
As a testament to the kind of business model they presented, more than 1,000 corporate tenants managed to find their office space through the platform. This included prestigious brands such as AIA, KPMG, and Google. Various groups were noted to have used the platform recently, perhaps to search through more than 1,000 properties listed, including those from listing partners like WeWork and Regus.
With the investments that they received, GorillaSpace can offer more than just its standard services and improve upon their expansion. The company lists long-term office space offerings, workspace options for flexible-work arrangements, and a hybrid form of the two categories as their current services.
