- Knotel — a leading flexible workspace provider — announced it raised $400 million in funding at more than a $1 billion valuation
Knotel — one of the world’s leading flexible workspace providers — announced that it raised $400 million in funding led by Wafra (an investment arm of the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Kuwait). This round of funding comes on the heels of Knotel achieving rapid growth in existing markets, the continued expansion into the world’s 30 largest cities, and the deepening of engagement with global enterprise accounts.
“Knotel is building the future of the workplace, and we are excited to welcome a group of investors who believe passionately in our product, vision, and ability to execute,” said Knotel co-founder and CEO Amol Sarva. “Wafra will help us continue our rapid global expansion and solidify our position as the leader in a fast-growing, trillion-dollar flexible office market.”
Unlike traditional coworking players — which provide shared spaces for freelancers and company satellite locations — Knotel operates a platform for true enterprise workspaces. And Knotel focuses on providing private and fully-furnished workspaces to large enterprises.
Plus the company’s tailor-made and flexible workspaces simplify the experience of managing commercial real estate and helps companies reduce capital expenditures, enhances employee productivity, and maintains operational flexibility.
Along with its aggressive global expansion efforts, Knotel is also going to use the new funding to accelerate recent innovations including Baya and Geometry — which is aimed at streamlining its core service delivery model. Baya is a blockchain platform used internally to facilitate data-driven acquisition decisions and will help the company further reduce transaction costs. And Geometry is a subscription service for adaptable workplace products that will allow the company to more efficiently and intelligently fit-out workspaces for flex-minded clients.
Mori Trust (Japan-based real estate business operators), Itochu (Japan-based trading conglomerates) and Mercuria (leading Japanese equity firm) all participated in this funding round. And returning and previous Knotel investors include Norwest Venture Partners, Newmark Knight Frank, Bloomberg Beta, and Rocket Internet.
Ever since the company was founded in 2016, Knotel grew to more than 4 million square feet across more than 200 locations in New York, San Francisco, London, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Paris, Berlin, Toronto, Boston, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. And in under 4 years, Knotel raised a total of $560 million and is now valued at more than $1 billion.
Knotel’s executive also includes co-founder and chairman Edward Shenderovich, COO Jonathan Goldberg, CIO and global head of real estate Eugene Lee, VP of Operations & Workshops David Jones, VP of Growth Trevor Clark, head of corporate finance Jenny Buchholz, head of product Sanjiv Sanghavi, head of financial operations Ricardo Sotelo, general counsel Amit Khanna, head of people Ann Beemish, and head of revenue marketing Allison Stoloff.
