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✊ Coworking impact.
💗 Local operator runs hygiene kit packing & fundraising event #
Charlotte Kirby shows (once again) why The Village Hive is so well know for their local economic and social impact with photos of them delivering their hygiene kits with special messages of encouragement to families at the nearby Ronald McDonald House.
Thanks for supporting those around you, and for putting the call to action to other spaces to explore hosting their own kit packing events.
👉 Read this.
🎉 Coworking celebrations.
🎂 UK space celebrates five years #
Oru Space marks its fifth anniversary after opening in the throughs of when the COVID pandemic led to a lockdown worldwide. Even through this challenge, their team successfully transformed what was a former hardware store and then NHS facility into a thriving community hub. The social impact-focused venture now welcomes approximately 1,000 daily visitors to its Dulwich location.
👉 Read this.
📰 Coworking news & views.
🔟 The critical parts of a coworking tech stack #
The Deskworks team put together a piece featuring many of TWIC subscribers’ recommendations around 10 technologies that help coworking spaces build great tech stacks.
Clark Rinehart taps IT infrastructure, Kayley DiCicco touches on access control, Taylor Mason nods at community support tools, Adrian Simpson waves at camera systems, Jaime Munoz connects on IoT devices and member engagement, William Edmundson slides into digital mail, Sam Shea books in a note about aggregators and Reed Thompson centralizes it all around space management software.
👉 Read this.
📖 New flex space terminology: “Offitels” #
CorporatEdge founder Monaah M Shuklla has introduced a new term of "Offitels" to describe a workspace model that combines premium hospitality services with flexible office environments. Offitels differentiate themselves through concierge-level services, ergonomic and wellness-focused designs, customizable business solutions for various company sizes, and LEED-Platinum certified sustainable facilities.
While London has long been the global epicenter of the flexible or serviced workspace industry, it’s hard to ignore the massive growth – and creativity in branding/naming – that is coming out of India. Offitels might not roll off the tongue for some, but it joins a diverse and creative list of different terms and labels that have been applied to the concept of shared workspaces in recent years. We’ll wait and see as to how well this term takes off, but there is no denying that the variety of services CorporatEdge is offering under this brand perfectly aligns with trends we’ve been observing for quite some time.
👉 Read this.
💰 $1.7M in grants awarded across North Carolina #
A private foundation (NC IDEA) that is committed to supporting entrepreneurial ambition and economic empowerment in North Carolina, announced that the organization has awarded eighteen NC IDEA ECOSYSTEM grants to partners and eleven Rural Impact grants to companies across the state totaling $1.7 million in funding.
Congrats to all grant awardees including coworking/flex brands Blush Cowork, The Wright Village, Winston Starts, UNCW Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the Hatch AVL Foundation.
👉 Read this.
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💻 Coworking technology.
🔥 Aggregator market heats up with French M&A #
Coworking Europe shares that French coworking marketplace Worklib have acquired local competitor OfficeRiders, it’s third strategic acquisition following Neo-nomade and Deskalot in 2023. Worklib is projecting €10M in revenue by the end of 2025, is profitable in France and is investing aggressively in international growth.
The move brings 4k not-so-coworking spaces (think apartments, lofts, artist studios) into the network that now spans 50k workspaces across 4000 cities. The aggregator acquisition spree continues.
👉 Read this.
🔍 Australian aggregator adds AI to slash office search time #
Australian flexible workspace marketplace Rubberdesk has added an AI tool that generates curated office space shortlists for businesses in just 20 seconds. The new technology analyzes detailed user requirements through dropdown selections OR freeform inputs to deliver personalized recommendations with transparent pricing and availability information. This development significantly improves the traditionally lengthy office search process in Australia’s fragmented commercial property market, combining AI efficiency with human expertise from Rubberdesk’s office specialists. The platform, which currently lists over 3,000 offices across Australia with capacity for over 27,000 people, has also expanded to Ireland and the UK, with further global rollout planned for later this year.
In 2025, if you’re not implementing AI into your business in some way, shape or form, you can best believe that your competition probably is. While many that jumped on the AI bandwagon early on did so by tacking on third party integrations or layering chat bots, it’s fascinating to see the evolution of nuanced and capable AI functionality that can make a real impact on the operations of your business, not to mention your customer’s experience.
👉 Read this.
📨 Space management software rebuilds virtual mail tooling #
Many in the industry had advocated for the importance of adding virtual office services to boost the bottom line of running a flexible workspace. Nexudus has announced a new virtual office module designed to help coworking operators diversify their revenue streams by allowing for easy management of virtual office services without the need of a third party virtual mail vendor. The platform enables operators to streamline the administration of business addresses, mail handling, and phone answering services without requiring physical desk space.
Pricing appears to start at around $50/month for the first 10 mailboxes. We’re keen to learn more so as to understand how they differentiate from other players in the marketplace other than being fully built into the Nexudus platform. While virtual offices are a valuable addition to any space’s offering, it’s important to fully understand the complex requirements the US Postal Service has that operators must follow to ensure compliancy.
👉 Read this.
🛒 OfficeRND embeds itself into flex space ecommerce #
OfficeRnD is shedding light on a critical issue impacting coworking spaces: overly complex booking processes that create unnecessary friction for potential customers. Their research showed that forcing visitors to complete lengthy contact forms, make phone calls, or navigate to third-party platforms significantly increases abandonment rates. We’ve had other stories recently where operators shared how they increased revenue simply by adding online bookings, even if they did require those extra steps. The company’s new Growth Hub solution aims to solve this problem by embedding a seamless e-commerce storefront directly into operators’ websites, maintaining brand consistency throughout the customer journey. This approach allows visitors to immediately view availability, pricing, and complete bookings without leaving the site, aiming to reducing the industry’s high average of 70% cart abandonment rate.
If you’re looking for more info on Growth Hub (or to catch up on recent TWIC podcasts), be sure to check out last week’s episode where we spoke with OfficeRND’s Head of Product who shared more about the Growth Hub offering. As proptech evolves and technological advances move forward, it’s important to keep yourself appraised on which features and functionalities are offered via core platforms vs. third party integrations.
👉 Read this.
🐦 Virtual mailbox co unveils ‘lite’ platform-specific version #
The team at PilotoMail shared that they’ve introduced a simplified version for OfficeRnD customers to receive, assign and track mail for members.
The post does dive into the comparison of the standalone "Full" version of PilotoMail vs this lighter, but arguably easier to activate for some operators, version.
👉 Read this.
📈 Coworking data.
📊 More data from WeWork’s broker survey on midsize companies #
A continuation of new data from WeWork‘s broker survey focused on midsize companies shows that traditional long-term commercial leases are falling out of favor as organizations with 10-100 employees overwhelmingly prefer shorter commitments. Medium-length lease terms of 2-4 years have emerged as the most popular option at 41%, followed by 5-10 year leases at 31%. Short-term leases of 12-24 months account for 23% of preferences, while traditional 10+ year commitments have become nearly obsolete at just 5%.
In other news, the sky is blue. All jokes aside, it’s not breaking news that companies are opting for shorter leases, but it certainly is helpful to have better insight in what the breakout looks like between lengths of leases. Especially for operators that are looking to add more team suites or are considering expanding to new locations or are even planning on pricing incentives.
👉 Read this.
🇫🇷 France sees 23% growth in coworking spaces #
France’s coworking market expanded by 23% in 2024, reaching 3,420 locations across the country according to a study by flexible workspace services company Ubiq. While Paris and Île-de-France represent 37% of national supply and face a 22% vacancy rate due to market maturity, regional cities are experiencing significant growth, with Bordeaux achieving a 6.3% penetration rate that surpasses the capital. Lyon, despite having the second-largest coworking stock, shows a lower penetration rate of 2.6%, while cities like Toulouse and Montpellier are seeing numerous new openings that may lead to price stabilization. The user demographic is evolving beyond the traditional freelancer and startup base, with large corporations increasingly adopting flexible workspace solutions, reflected by a 50% increase in companies with over 500 employees using coworking spaces in just one year.
Similar to recent data we’ve shared out of the UK, it appears that urban supply is stabilizing and that growth is coming from new locations opening in tertiary markets and more midsize to large companies placing employees in flexible workspaces.
👉 Read this.
🤝 Coworking market moves.
🇮🇳 Flex space provider raises $11.6M to expand #
Monaah M Shuklla shares that CorporatEdge have secured around $11.6M (INR 100 crore) in equity funding to expand across India.
👉 Read this.
🎙 Coworking conversations.
Tashi Dorjee, Head of Flex for JLL Asia is joined by Head of Asset Development for JLL Asia Andrew Macpherson to deliver yet another insightful discussion on impactful retrofits, flexibility, and wellness offerings like spec suites with services.
It’s no secret that if there was a Tashi Dorjee fan club, the TWIC team might very well be founding members. The content he puts out and insights shared are incredibly valuable to anyone in the industry. For more from him, be sure to check out this episode of the TWIC podcast where Hector has a great chat with him!
Javier Garcia Iza, CEO of IOS Offices, joins the Flex Uncensored podcast for a deep dive into how he and his team have created a coworking brand that prioritizes people, purpose, and premium experiences.
