Naked Hub, the Shanghai-based startup, has officially announced a merger with JustCo, the Singapore-based co-working space company, in an effort to compete with industry leader WeWork. Naked Hub currently has 21 co-working locations across Asia, specifically in China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam, and the merger will add fuel to its goal of expansion.
WeWork is widely known as the leading co-working space pioneer, but Naked Hub’s ambitious move to combine forces with JustCo may give WeWork a run for its money. The merger created the largest co-working space operator in Asia; Naked Hub aims to increase the 21 co-working space locations to 41 by the end of the year in new locations such as Jakarta and Bangkok. The company calculates that the potential revenue from the merger and new location sites will be near $100 million. Furthermore, the founder of Naked Group, Grant Horsfield, aims to have 194 co-working spaces by 2020, and had the following to say about the future of Naked Hub after the merger:
“JustCo is the best operator in Southeast Asia and we see ourselves as the best in North Asia, so it was a natural partnership to create the biggest in Asia of premium co-working space. We need to grow quickly to keep up with the growth of the industry. [Also], Hong Kong… has very expensive real estate. We believe very strongly that Hong Kong will be one of our largest locations worldwide – we’re actively looking to grow in Hong Kong.”
Naked Hub and JustCo are definitely going in the right direction to compete with WeWork, and if they continue to make strategic moves like the merger, they may become the new leaders in the industry.
Mohammad Sultani for TechFunnel.com
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