Co-working service provider Distrii raises $30m

Shanghai-based co-working service provider Distrii announced its series A financing of 200 million yuan ($30.2 million) on Tuesday.

Major investors include the property company Jingrui Holdings' investment platform, Junzi Capital and Singapore property company City Developments Limited. With the capital raised, Distrii will accelerate the expansion of light-asset offices and start tapping Asia-Pacific, Southeast Asia, Europe and North America.

Established in late 2015, Distrii opened its first co-working space in May last year. By the beginning of this month, more than 400 companies had registered into Distrii's co-working space. Apart from China, it has also stepped into Singapore in May and will unveil its flagship franchise in Singapore in April next year.

The renting price for Distrii's co-working space varies between 1,000 yuan to 4,000 yuan in Shanghai for each cubicle every month. Up till now, Distrii has opened 15,000 working cubicles in the market, and the number will reach 80,000 by 2019, according to Hu Jing, founder and chief executive officer of Distrii.

Pointing out that franchised office brand will be the next major trend in the market, Hu said the aim of Distrii is to build itself into an office service provider based on the Internet of Things technologies.

Qin Jun, chairman of Junzi Capital, said that the central government's call for mass innovation and entrepreneurship has created opportunities. She suggested Distrii should focus on high-end clients as they are more likely to be repeat customers.