Indonesian Coworking Space EV Hive Gets $3.5 Mn Pre Series A Funding

Jakarta-based coworking space provider EV Hive has raised $3.5 Mn in Pre Series A funding. The funding round was led by Insignia Venture Partners. The round saw participation from Intudo Ventures, Pandu Sjahrir and a network of prominent angel investors.

Existing investors East Ventures, SMDV and Sinar Mas Land also participated in the round.

Talking about the investment, lead investor Yinglan Tan, Founding Managing Partner and CEO of Insignia Venture Partners said, “The EV Hive leadership and staff have proven themselves to be the only coworking space operator to rapidly replicate their success formula across multiple prime locations while still maintaining the community network and effectively improving the productivity of members. They are building a very interesting network effect of talent, founders, companies, advisors and investors.”

Intudo – Debut Investment in Indonesia

This investment marks Intudo Ventures’ debut investment in Indonesia. Intudo Ventures was founded by Eddy Chan and Patrick Yip, working with founding advisor Timothy Chen, in 2017. The VC firm launched a $10 Mn fund in June 2017. Intudo Ventures was founded by Eddy Chan and Patrick Yip. It is an Indonesia-focussed independent venture capital firm.

The founding team has invested in dozens of early-stage companies in Silicon Valley, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Indonesia since the 1990s. These investments include the likes of PayPal, SpaceX, Palantir Technologies, Netscreen Technologies, and Fortinet.

EV Hive – Disrupting Coworking Space In Indonesia

Since its founding in 2015, EV Hive’s network has hosted over 187 events with over 17,000 attendees. EV Hive also acts as a community platform for learning and growth acceleration for entrepreneurs. The startup offers smart workplace to startups in Indonesia. Through events and workshops by its network of 11,000 entrepreneurs and tech communities, EV Hive helps local startups grow their business.

EV Hive currently has a network of coworking space in seven locations. Apart from this, the company has under construction projects at nine other locations. The startup will use the newly raised funds to accelerate its growth plans.

Talking about the funding, Carlson Lau, CEO of EV Hive said, “We are strong believers in the power of community networks and the role of technology as an enabler of open collaboration in today’s sharing economy. With the additional funding, we continue to adhere closely to our core mission of supporting our entrepreneurs’ journey with plans to build additional shared services in co-living, co-warehousing and other verticals that our community requires.”

Once a part of the network the startups get access to co-working passports to all EV Hive’s locations, business services, community networking sessions, training seminars. Apart from this, startups get access to the EV Hive Connect platform where members can connect and cross sell services.

EV Hive currently offers four membership plans, namely: free member, flexi desk, dedicated desk and private office. The facilities offered include work-desks, printing, dedicated conference rooms, access to member only events, high-speed Internet and free unlimited coffee. The company also offers curated discounts on food and beverages and gym memberships. The services can be availed at a starting price of $75 (Rp 1 Mn) per person, per month.

Prior to this in May 2017, EV Hive secured $800K in its Pre Series A round of funding from existing and new investors. The round saw participation from Tokyo-based VC firm East Ventures, tech-focused VC firm SMDV, and real estate company Sinar Mas, along with three, undisclosed management members. At that time, the startup also hired a new management team that consisted of Carlson Lau as CEO, Jason Lee as CFO, and Ethan Choi as Chief Strategy Officer.

With this new round of capital infusion by Insignia Venture Partners, with participation from Intudo Ventures, and other EV Hive will look to boost its network by opening the coworking space at nine new centres. It will also strengthen its position against other coworking spaces including Jakarta’s co-working spaces chain Rework that launched its second office in the city in Kuningan, South Jakarta in April 2017. Other players in this segment include Hubud, Outpost, Wave Bali, etc.