WeWork offers rent discounts to early stage start-ups
Co-working space provider WeWork is offering prospective tenants 50 per cent off its usual hot desk and office fees in a bid to lure people back into the office.
The program, dubbed WeWork “Growth Campus”, will be available at nine of the company’s Australian locations including Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. WeWork has 21 spaces across the country.
To qualify for the discount, eligible start-ups must be based in Australia, be in their first five years of operation, have fewer than 20 employees, be before or up to Series A (or early) funding stage, and have plans to go global.
Beyond rent discounts, new tenants will also get access to WeWork Labs, a professional mentoring and networking program that connects tenants with people around the world who can help them with their business problems via Calendly and Zoom.
From a new shared office space called “Greenhouse” for climate-related tech start-ups due to open in the Sydney CBD Salesforce tower next year to the Tech Central development at Sydney’s Central Station, the intense battle to house the next generation of founders and entrepreneurs is heating up.
Furthermore, as traditional commercial real estate is rejigged post COVID-19, workspace providers need to offer more than just floor space to compete with the hot new player in town: the home office.
Such perks include more flexible lease terms, coaching, catering and rigorous cleaning standards.
Post-pandemic winner
WeWork posted a $102.5 million loss for its 2020 financial year, sharply up from $42.6 million a year earlier as its finance costs rose and it booked in a large impairment on its national portfolio of hubs in expectation that its future earnings at certain locations would drop.
However, the co-working space giant has high hopes that its flexible work spaces will be a post-pandemic winner as workplace practices change, and its experience in the space makes it an attractive landlord.
WeWork Labs Australia and south-east Asia head Monica Wulff, a former start-up founder herself, said WeWork had a long history of catering its spaces to incubator-style functions.
“WeWork originally grew out of a time of economic uncertainty. And its major customers at the time were start-ups. So, I’m really thrilled that during this time of economic uncertainty, we’re actually offering something to support that group of emerging technology businesses,” she said.
“There are a lot of co-working spaces targeting the start-up ecosystem, but a lot of these have a focus on the open floor-type set-up.
“With Growth Campus, we’re talking about separate offices, that are safe, and that give you the ability to build your own culture within your own office, while also being able to tap into the established business culture at WeWork.”
WeWork’s Growth Campus was launched in Britain in February, and has attracted more than 800 sign-ups in the first six months, including Antler UK and Crowdcube.
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