Valve, a global industry system for flexible workspaces, recently announced a $4.5 million seed funding round led by Project A with participation from Discovery Ventures. The company provides turnkey sales, marketing and distribution solutions for CRE professionals, online booking platforms and flexible workspace operators to “transact across a global network of workspaces seamlessly.”
The company plans to use the funding to expand its reach across North America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). It also should help accelerate the $4.2 billion of flexible workspace contract value that Valve’s interconnected partners have processed.
This latest funding round comes at an ideal time for Valve, as the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition toward turnkey, flexible workspaces. More people are getting involved with the flexible workspace sector, but both sides still face challenges. Operators are having a tough time leasing space efficiently. Meanwhile, brokerages don’t have streamlined digital access to inventory, data and content. Valve looks to fill that gap so both parties can transact more efficiently.
“Valve makes it easy for companies building flexible workspace businesses—whether you are a landlord, operator, brokerage, application or tech entrepreneur,” said Valve CEO Nick Roveta. “Valve’s unified system meets a logical need for all industry players in the flexible workspace ecosystem to have one place to streamline how they partner and grow revenues together.”
With Valve’s technology, landlords and operators on the supply side can boost their sales teams with tooling and distribute content and receive bookings from traditional brokerages, listing sites, and on-demand apps through a centralized inventory and distribution management platform. Operators can also connect their data into Valve’s global industry system to reach more than 2,000 advisors, partners and online booking platforms that are doing business in the flexible workspace.
Demand side gains market intelligence
Meanwhile on the demand side, brokers, booking platforms and portals gain access to market intelligence. That intelligence includes real-time flexible workspace inventory, and an end-to-end booking application programming interface (API) to integrate with their proprietary products and solutions. Valve’s global industry system provides the source-of-truth via specialist tooling and APIs to more than 10,000 flexible workspace buildings globally.
The flexible workspace rental market is one of the fast-growing segments in the CRE industry. It’s valued at $30 billion and is projected to reach $300 billion by 2030, according to Valve. The company operates across more than 10,000 buildings in 250 cities and 170 customers today.
“Valve is building the infrastructure layer of the fast-growing flex workspace market, and it’s a perfect time to capitalize,” said Anton Waitz, General Partner at Project A. “The team combines the right mindset, speed and passion for executing Valve’s mission and building a company that will help the entire industry thrive.”
“Valve’s data and technology solution enable JLL to attract more occupiers to our market leading services, access co-working and flexible inventory, and efficiently process flexible workspace,” said Tom Pilkington, Head of Online Markets UK, JLL.
