Member Article

Co-working company Work.Life secures £300k for Bermondsey site

Work.Life, the co-working space network in the capital, has secured a £300k finance deal to open a new site in south London as a prelude to UK-wide expansion.

The group, which also operates spaces in Camden, Clerkenwell, Reading and London Fields, has completed the six-figure debt finance agreement with London and Manchester’s OakNorth to acquire the new 213-desk site in Bermondsey.

The opening of the new site comes as the co-working network plans to open a further ten properties between now and the end of 2018, with its first sites outside London planned in Birmingham, Manchester and Cambridge.

Work.Life also announced a partnership with US telecoms giant Verizon back in January to develop a co-working space within its Clerkenwell UK headquarters.

Following completion of the deal, Co-Founder, Elliot Gold, commented: “2016 was a phenomenal year for Work.Life and we’re incredibly proud of all the amazing work that has gone into making it such a success.

“This is a market with a huge amount of untapped potential and numerous opportunities for further growth, so we’re very excited to be opening further sites this year.

“As we look ahead to the future, we hope to build on the momentum from our first year and open several more sites.”

Deepesh Thakrar, Debt Finance Director at the challenger bank, explained that OakNorth had a particular interest in fostering the UK’s co-working ecosystem due to its focus on entrepreneurial lending.

He added: “Co-working spaces are the birthplace of the next generation of entrepreneurs, providing freelancers, start-ups, small businesses, and divisions of larger companies, with numerous opportunities for networking, shared learning and collaboration.

“As a bank focused on helping entrepreneurs and fast-growth businesses achieve their ambitions, we are proud to have helped fuel the co-working revolution, lending to a number of providers in this space since our launch.

“Work.Life is an ambitious, entrepreneurial business with a model that in just one year, has already proven its potential. We look forward to working with Work.Life in the future and watching them grow in the years to come.”

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