WeWork’s Chinese Nemesis Leases First Hong Kong Space

The Chinese co-working startup formerly known as UrWork, has reportedly leased a full floor at Grand Millennium Plaza in Sheung Wan, preparing to open its first shared office centre just minutes away from Hong Kong’s Central business hub.

Now going by the more distinctive (and less actionable) handle of Ucommune, the $1.3 billion shared office unicorn leased the 15,000 square foot (1394 square metres) space at HK$50 ($6.4) per square foot.

Ucommune plans to convert the floor in the 30-storey strata-titled office building on Queen’s Road into a shared office space yielding 200 workstations as the Beijing-based company prepares to take on WeWork, naked Hub and Hong Kong’s local players in the battle for the world’s most lucrative office market.

International Expansion Follows C Round Financing

The Hong Kong opening comes just after Ucommune raised RMB 300 million ($46 million) from a trio of mainland investment firms in a series C funding round that valued the company at RMB 9 billion ($1.3 billion) at the end of last year.

The company helmed by former China Vanke executive Mao Daqing hopes to open its centre at the border of Central and Sheung Wan after Chinese New Year in 2018.

Setting Up Shop in HK, SG and TW

Ucommune also recently announced new office locations in Taiwan and Singapore. The company chose Taipei to establish its first co-working location in Taiwan with its local partner. Located in the central CBD area of Taipei’s Xin Yi district, the 2,000 square meters space has 200 workstations. The space is scheduled to open in April 2018.

The Beijing-headquartered shared office provider has its second Ucommune space in Singapore scheduled to open in April 2018. The space is 1,400 square metres and provides 300 workstations.

Ucommune has had its name changed from URWork late December, following the lawsuit in which US co-working space giant WeWork sought to block the Chinese company from using the name URWork as a trademark in the US. The US co-working space provider argued the name is “deceptively similar” to WeWork’s and would confuse clients into believing the two companies are affiliated.