London-based Hubble is an online marketplace that provides flexible office spaces to businesses of any size. Now, the company announced that it picked up £2 million, which takes the overall investment raised by the coworking startup to £10 million.
The investment round was led by Pi Labs alongside existing investors JLL Spark, the strategic investment venture arm of commercial real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle and Starwood Capital.
World’s first hybrid workplace platform
As the COVID-19 pandemic crisis has transformed the world of work, Hubble eyes to launch a slew of products that are aimed at supporting the hybrid working trend. Its new platform lets businesses understand how their employees want to work and search for, set up and manage their hybrid workplace in a data-driven manner.
The Hubble platform comprises four products that can be managed on one dashboard. Firstly, the Hubble Workplace Strategy Tool enables businesses to figure out the right combination of office and remote work for their team. Hubble HQ lets businesses find a new office space while Hubble Pass helps them access a global network of on-demand workspaces. Lastly, Hubble Perks lets businesses send remote work perks to their team.
A typical business with 100 staff uses a combination of the new Hubble products to reduce the size of their main office, whilst giving all their employees access to a global network of on-demand spaces and remote work perks. This platform helps them achieve high employee satisfaction while reducing overall office costs.
Hubble’s office search product, Hubble HQ covers over 5,000 office spaces across the UK and its on-demand product, Hubble Pass is available in 12 countries with 200 spaces, growing by 30 spaces per month.
Tushar Agarwal, CEO and Co-founder at Hubble, commented: “The last 14 months have completely transformed the relationship between work and the workplace. Office space is a $22 trillion asset class, which will see its biggest change in a generation in the next five years. Hybrid working will become the new normal, as employers and employees seek to find the right balance between office and remote working. We’re proud to have been continuously backed by the biggest proptech investors in the world, to make hybrid working easy and accessible to businesses of all shapes and sizes.”
Hugo Silva, Investment Manager at PiLabs commented: “We’re seeing a huge shift in the future of work. Businesses want to be able to transition to a hybrid working model, but this is new and difficult for many. We’ve been seriously impressed with Hubble’s ability to deeply understand a new customer problem and use their foundation as pioneers in the flexible office market, to build a solution that makes hybrid working easy.”
Remote working amidst pandemic
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, Hubble witnessed a 95% dip in office enquiries. However, with the relaxations that have come up now, the company has seen a recovery back to 80% of pre-Covid levels as of June 2021. It has adapted to meet the demand for flexible office space, which is higher than ever as many businesses shed long-term leases for more flexible and hybrid options.
Founded in 2014 by Tushar Agarwal and Tom Watson, Hubble’s UK clients including Oddbox, Trustpilot, and Accenture.