WeWork May Get $3B from SoftBank and its Vision Fund

WeWork, the fast expanding coworking space provider has raised 300 million dollars from SoftBank. It’s just the initial tranche of a 3 billion dollar investment to come from SoftBank and the Vision Fund.

Reuters reports that while the 300 million dollars come from SoftBank, the rest of the multi-billion dollar hedge will come from the Vision Fund.

The Vision Fund is a 100 billion dollar fund aimed at funding startups dealing in emerging, disruptive technology. It has the contribution of the Saudi Arabian government’ sovereign wealth fund, SoftBank’s own contribution of 25 billion dollars and others like Foxconn, Oracle founder and Apple who has committed to invest a billion dollars in it.

WeWork could well be one of the first startups to be funded by the world’s largest war chest for startups.

WeWork is valued at approximately 17 billion dollars, and this investment is expected to increase the worth of the company. The first of its kind pioneers in coworking spaces was founded in 2010 by Adam Neuman and Miguel McKelvey. Its headquarters are in New York but WeWork is now present in about 11 countries. WeWork has over 30,000 users and in addition to a working space are also extended healthcare insurance, internet facilities and social networking opportunities.

WeWork made its entrance in India in early January with a 190,000 square foot space leased for 10 years in Mumbai.

In July 2016, Bloomberg reported that WeWork, one of the most valuable satrtups in the world, had lowered its expected revenues. “WeWork produced in late April an internal financial review document that slashed a 2016 profit forecast by 78 percent, cut its revenue estimate by 14 percent and disclosed a 63 percent surge in projected negative cash flow.”

WeWork made its entrance into India in early January 2017 with a 190,000 square foot space from Mumbai leased for 10 years.

At the time WeWork announced its foray into India, a startup industry insider told BWDisrupt that they do so even without sufficient capital to back such expansion.