FlySpaces has served more than 500 customers over the last 18 months across the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Indonesia
FlySpaces Co-founder and CEO Mario Berta
FlySpaces, an online marketplace for flexible workspaces in the ASEAN region, has raised US$2.1 million in pre-Series A round of funding from a group of investors, led by The Net Group Co-president Raymond Rufino.
An unnamed private equity firm and a few top property developers from the Philippines also joined the round.
The funds will be used for expansion into more markets within the region, growing within existing markets, especially Indonesia, while also strengthening FlySpaces’ technology offerings. “We will continue to invest more in Jakarta, which we launched earlier this year, and reevaluate next quarter for further expansion,” FlySpaces CEO Mario Berta told e27.
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“In the last two years flexible office space and co-working have been the hottest topic in commercial real estate, with the region’s biggest brands like CapitaLand and Ascendas moving in this direction. With all of the recent joint ventures and investment deals happening, commercial real estate is finally looking ready for disruption,” he added.
Founded in 2015, FlySpaces is a digital marketplace that provides short-term work and meeting space solutions to multinationals, startups, SMEs, and mobile professionals. One can rent the space on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
For venue owners, FlySpaces acts as a platform that connects space operators to a vast user base, allowing them to optimise and monetise their space. “We really focus on SMEs and MNCs that are very quickly seeking out flexible office space solutions for multiple reasons, from cost reduction to employee mobility,” said Guillaume Martin, Co-founder and COO of FlySpaces.
The company has over 1,000 offices and 400,000 sqm under management. The firm claims to have served more than 500 customers over the last 18 months across five markets — the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Indonesia.
The co-working spaces sector has been on an upward spiral for the past couple of years, thanks to a fast-growing startup ecosystem. Not just startups, even SMEs and large enterprises have started turning to co-working spaces, which enable them to cut costs on office spaces.
As the industry is hotting up, companies operating in this space in the West have started looking eastward. For instance, US co-working spaces provider WeWork acquired Singapore-headquartered spacemob early this week, as part of its expansion plans in Southeast Asia and South Korea. WeWork has also recently expanded to India.
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