Hubble, a London-based flexible office space company, has raised £4 million in Series A funding led by JLL Spark Global Venture Fund. Founded in 2014, Hubble is now one of the fastest growing technology companies in the U.K. as it is now placing a business in a new office every three hours.
Currently, Hubble lists more than 5,000 offices on its website. And with this funding round, Hubble has now raised £6.4 million across three funding rounds.
Downing Ventures and the Directors of M7 Real Estate also participated in this round along with existing investor Starwood Capital (via the Concrete proptech fund).
Some of Hubble’s previous backers include James Caan (of Dragon’s Den fame), and Streetcar founder Brett Akker. Rohan Silva, the former technology advisor to the Prime Minister, is now a co-founder and adviser of Hubble.
Photo: Hubble
With this round of funding, Hubble is going to invest further into its technology platform in order to attract medium-sized businesses of 50 people or more. And it will also address the soaring demand for flexible office space from larger businesses.
According to JLL, 30% of corporate portfolios are expected to be flexible office space by 2030. And in London, flexible office space increased from 0.5% of total office space to 5% in five years.
Hubble works with large providers like WeWork and IWG, 500 independent providers. And it has helped businesses like Funding Circle sublet an entire floor. In the past year, Hubble tripled its revenues and helped clients like Jaguar Land Rover, Monzo Bank, and Trussle.
“Since launching four years ago, we’ve built an unrivaled technology platform that addresses the overwhelming need for finding and renting flexible office space, easily. When we started, our average client was a five-person startup needing desks in a co-working space for a few months. Now, we are frequently helping businesses with 50 staff or large multinationals renting space for a year or more,” said Hubble CEO and co-founder Tushar Agarwal in a statement. “The traditional lease market with its 10-year terms and significant upfront costs is no longer fit for purpose. Businesses want to be able to move in, or out, of an office in a matter of days and we’re able to help them do that.”
To support its rapid growth, Hubble has been on a hiring spree. One new team member was hired a week over the past 15 weeks. And its technology team has doubled in size. The company’s property advisory team also brought on former entrepreneur and IWG Director Mark Lewarne. Holly Hardy (GL Hearn) and Freddie Cousens (Colliers) were also brought on to the advisory team.
“We continue to see an increase in demand for flexible office space, and Hubble’s technology platform does a great job streamlining the process of connecting a wide array of businesses with the right space for them. We are excited to help the Hubble team scale their platform with JLL’s global reach and expertise,” added JLL Spark co-CEO Mihir Shah.
Downing Ventures associate Michael Tefula explained that Hubble is “the future of property. The platform helps all manner of businesses looking for office space to adapt and thrive as their needs change.” And Concrete partner Taylor Wescoatt pointed out that “as the flexible office market starts to resemble the hotel market, we firmly believe in Hubble’s vision of becoming the Booking.com for this sector.”
