Singapore, CapitaLand formed tripartite venture with Chinese firm

It is aimed at helping local SMEs enter China.

International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, CapitaLand and UrWork, Asia’s real estate company headquartered and listed in Singapore and China’s co-working space operator, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to facilitate Singapore companies’ entry into China amid the growing trend of the sharing economy.

The partnership will see CapitaLand launch co-working space in its malls for the first time, and create new investment opportunities for CapitaLand’s venture capital arm, C31 Ventures, as part of the real estate giant’s push to leverage digital innovation to build the real estate of the future.

CapitaLand will work with UrWork to provide co-working spaces in CapitaLand’s properties in China and Singapore. As the agency partnering Singapore companies to go global, IE Singapore will identify and link potential Singapore SMEs to these co-working spaces in China.

The partnership has already borne its first fruits - UrWork will open a co-working space in two of 65 CapitaLand malls in China in the next six months, as the trend of locating co-working space in retail malls takes off globally system and integrated business advisory services have been set up, including link-ups to investors.

These co-working spaces will provide members with convenient access to modern amenities, and offer the added advantage of enabling these companies to test- bed their innovations and subsequently sell their products in the malls.

The first co- working space in CapitaMall Minzhongleyuan, Wuhan, sprawls 4,100 square metres (sq m) and will open in phases from next month. This will be followed by a 1,300-sq m space in CapitaMall Wangjing, Beijing, slated to open in the first half of next year. These two co-working spaces are expected to accommodate more than 600 work stations.