More than IDR 600 Billion has been funded by investors, CoHive is experiencing business difficulties

Menurut Coworking Spaces Global Market Report 2022, market size industry co-working space global will grow from $13,60 billion in 2021 to $16,17 billion in 2022 at a CAGR of 18,9%. The report also underlines that the growth of this business is strongly influenced by the increase in the number of startups, including the trend of flexible workspaces among young workers.

In fact, this business also experienced turbulence when the impact of the corona virus peaked in mid-2020. The expected number of declines in demand co-working space more than 50%, it is suspected that the work from home policy imposed by startup activists. In the era new normal this, then came the work trend hybrid –combine working remotely and working in an office—making workers more flexible in choosing places.

In the midst of the optimistic projection above, recently bad news came from one of the operators co-working space the most developed in Indonesia, CoHive. The startup, which is led by Chris Angkasa (CEO) is currently in debt and is currently undergoing restructuring. The case has also arrived at the court, heard at the Central Jakarta District Court.

Even source Deal Street Asia said, the impact of this problem has the potential to cause CoHive to close operations co-working space-his.

DailySocial.id has contacted the company to ask for comment regarding the news circulating. However, until this news was published, CoHive was still reluctant to give a response.

Business expansion co-working space it really depends on the operational costs. In providing services, they provide high quality work space and facilities, supported by various excellent programs.

Menurut report DSInnovate, in Indonesia there are more than 300 players co-working space with various scales, spread over 45 cities -- following the significant growth in the number of startups.

CoHive has been supported by a number of investors such as East Ventures, Insignia, Naver Corp, and others. Lastly, they announced the round series B funding, bringing the total equity funds that have been successfully booked to around $40 million or equivalent to 623 billion Rupiah. According to sources, this funding has catapulted the company's valuation to over $100 million.

Currently CoHive operates its services in various cities. Besides Jakarta, there are also Medan and Surabaya. The services offered are quite diverse through CoHive membership, ranging from workspaces, coworking, private offices, meeting rooms, up to you coliving. Its last expansion in Surabaya in the range of 2019-2020, we will cooperate with Tanrise Property and TIFA Properti as strategic partners.

Investor's hypothesis about coworking post-pandemic

According to the data inputted to the regulator, last year two players in the industry coworking local has received funding. First there is GoWork which is rumored to be starting a C1 series funding round. A number of investors joined, including Gobi Partners through the Meranti Asean Growth Fund, and have raised $3,6 million or equivalent to 51,8 billion Rupiah.

CoHive is also reportedly getting additional funding from previous investors. However, the related parties we confirmed regarding this funding chose not to comment.

The existence of this funding indicates a positive signal from investors, who still believe in their hypothesis in the segment coworking. To validate it, last year we talked with a number of investors, one of which is from Indogen Capital (which invests in GoWork).

Indogen Capital Vice President Kevin Winsen said, "Our hypothesis is that the demand for coworking space will bounce back and continue to grow modestly. We see that the future of working will be a hybrid, people are used to new work productivity during the pandemic but at the same time they don't want to work. lose the social function to meet face-to-face. As a result, multi-location access from coworking spaces will become a strong moat in the long term for this address change of behavior."

Meanwhile, East Ventures representatives also gave their views. They invested in CoHive and CirCO (Vietnam).

East Ventures operating partner David Fernando Audy said, "Flexible or coworking spaces have become an integrated part of the office market trend and will continue to do so. It is believed that there will be good demand for these services, once the pandemic subsides. Of course in the short term, mobility restrictions provide a lot of pressure on operators. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect some strategies to shift towards market consolidation."