WeWork has just raised an extra $4.4bn in funds from SoftBank Vision Fund and SoftBank Group, according to a statement on Thursday by the office-sharing startup.
SoftBank will invest $3bn in WeWork. The remaining $1.4bn will be pumped into three new subsidiaries of WeWork: WeWork China, WeWork Japan, WeWork Pacific.
SoftBank will be naming two directors to WeWorks board of directors, namely Ronald Fisher, a director at SoftBank Group, and Mark Schwartz, who is an external director at SoftBank Group.
The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that WeWork had raised $300m in funds from SoftBank and there were plans the company would raise a further $3bn. In early July, Bloomberg reported that an extra $760m in funds were given to WeWork. $500m were secured from SoftBank early July. The announcement on Thursday includes both figures. SoftBanks investment is one of the first that has been made by its new $100bn vision fund, which is tech focused, announced last October.
The fund is described as the world’s largest of its kind. WeWork leases large workspaces in commercial buildings, which are then subleased to smaller companies—usually tech startups. Last July, the real estate organisation was valued at $21bn, putting it in the fifth place in the world’s highest-valued startups. CAP:
WeWork—which offers warehouse-style shared workspace to smaller companies, primarily tech startups—expected to use the massive investment by SoftBank to expand its global presence.
