New York-based co-working space giant WeWork on Thursday launched ‘WeWork Labs’ in India to help early-stage startups in the country get access to investment, resources and mentorship from its global network of members. WeWork Labs functions as a startup incubator within WeWork, that provides an open workspace with the goal of encouraging collaboration among members who haven’t yet fully developed their business ideas.
WeWork, which raised massive $4.4 Bn from Softbank in August’17 valuing it at $20 billion, said that it is planning to set up 10 ‘WeWork Labs’ in India by next year which would provide support to startups.
The first WeWork Labs opened in New York’s SoHo in April 2011 and about 1,000 start-ups are part of WeWork Labs across the globe.
Started a pilot three-four months ago, there’s already a WeWork Labs in India at the company’s Gurugram facility (Platina Tower) and eight startups are already a part of it.
WeWork Labs also partners with local incubators and accelerators to provide holistic, long-term support for startups throughout their journey. Notably, it do not take equity in member companies
WeWork Labs Senior Vice President and Global Head Roee Adler told PTI, “India is among the largest start-up nations and is poised to continue growing at a significant pace. While there are programmes running in India that offer incubation and acceleration to start-ups, we believe the scale has to be increased manifold.”
With its global network of over 2.68 lakh members, WeWork is confident that its “unique and no-equity startup programme” can help support Indian start-ups through their journey as they grow their ideas and business, he added.
WeWork has more than 5,000 employees in over 280 locations, spread across 77 cities in 23 countries including Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Singapore, South Korea, Spain and United Kingdom.
Source – The Hindu, Economic Tim
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