Wafra Investment arm of Kuwait invests in Knotel and its Blockchain Baya

Knotel a leading flexible workspace provider, has completed a $400 million financing, led by Wafra, an investment arm of the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Kuwait. Building on its breakneck growth, Knotel will use the financing to grow its footprint in existing markets, continue expansion into the world’s 30 largest cities and deepen its 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 Amol Sarva, Co-Founder and CEO of Knotel. “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. Knotel focuses on providing private and fully-furnished workspaces to large enterprises. The company’s tailor-made, flexible workspaces simplify the experience of managing commercial real estate and help companies reduce capital expenditures, enhance employee productivity and maintain operational flexibility.

In addition to its aggressive global expansion efforts, Knotel will also use the new financing to accelerate recent innovations - Baya and Geometry - aimed at streamlining its core service delivery model. Baya, a blockchain platform used internally to facilitate data-driven acquisition decisions, will help the company further reduce transaction costs. Geometry, a subscription service for adaptable workplace products, will allow the company to more efficiently and intelligently fit-out workspaces for flex-minded clients.

Mori Trust (one of Japan’s leading real estate business operators), Itochu (one of Japan’s largest trading conglomerates) and Mercuria (a leading Japanese equity firm) all participated in the financing. Returning and previous Knotel investors include Norwest Venture Partners, Newmark Knight Frank, Bloomberg Beta and Rocket Internet.

Since the company’s inception in 2016, Knotel has grown 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. In less than 4 years, the company has raised a total of $560 million, is now valued at more than $1 billion and boasts a slew of enterprise customers.