WeWork Leads $30M Funding Round For Coworking Software Startup

WeWork is the lead investor behind a new $30M funding round for a flexible workspace tech startup it began partnering with earlier this year. 

Upflex also received funding from Newmark, Cushman & Wakefield and others as part of the Series A round, it announced Wednesday.

The round brings the company's total funding to $34.1M since its 2018 founding. The startup said the money will allow it to expand its platform to more flex office providers.

"We plan to leverage the funds to expand our market leading technology and team as we continue to cement ourselves as the backbone of the flex industry, setting the standard for what today’s employers and employees seek in the workplace," Upflex CEO Christophe Garnier said in the announcement.

WeWork announced an "exclusive partnership" with Upflex in February, allowing Upflex to aggregate WeWork's inventory and connect occupiers, brokers and other partners to available space.

Upflex said it increases a flex space operator's exposure to potential clients while offering occupancy data and other property management tools to its clients. The company said it has 700 flex operator partners, with 6,000 booking locations across hundreds of cities.

The firm's latest funding round comes on the heels of a record-shattering year for venture capital flowing into proptech in 2021.

But 2022 has been a more mixed year for the sector, as proptech firms that went public like Latch and View have cut staff and seen their valuations plummet amid financial challenges. 

WeWork, too, is still losing money, although less than it did during the height of the pandemic. In its earnings summary for the first quarter of 2022, WeWork reported it lost $435M, significantly less than the $2B net loss it suffered in the first quarter of 2021.