Local Coworking Spaces Could Catch-Up to WeWork

NEW YORK CITY – WeWork may have disrupted the coworking sector, but smaller and local coworking spaces are catching up, according to a new survey from Clutch, a ratings and reviews platform.

In September flexible workspace provider WeWork had its valuation fall from $47 million on the private markets to $10 to $12 billion in the process of gearing up to launch its initial public offering. The sequence of events eventually led the company’s CEO Adam Neumann to step down, and an eventual bailout from its largest investor SoftBank for $1.7 billion.

Aside from the firestorm experience WeWork has faced in recent months, there is no debating that the company dominates co-working, with 39% of coworking employees working in a WeWork space. But local coworking spaces are catching up, at 36%, leaving room for them to pass WeWork, according to the Clutch data report.

Coworking investors bet that local shops will soon dethrone WeWork, based on coworking’s overall growth and the need to meet the demand, which a range of independent real estate investors are trying to capitalize on. The number of coworking spaces worldwide is expected to reach 26,000 in 2022, up from 18,000 in 2019 and 8,000 in 2015, according to the report.