Workbox Launches New Venture Capital Arm

Flex office space operator Workbox started its new VC arm, Workbox Ventures, that will focus on the “future of work,” according to a press release.

“The firm seeks to grow this fund at a time when businesses are faced with the reality that pre-pandemic processes, tools, and traditions are unlikely to return in their prior form,” the release said. “Businesses must learn to empower their teams, achieve strong financial performance, and provide the right physical resources to their teams within the framework of new expectations from employees, partners, and clients.”

Workbox is making best on the future of how companies will conduct work and use office space that employees may not want to check into on a daily basis. A venture capital arm opens the potential for backing companies that could develop software to better enable changes that would ultimately support Workbox’s major strategy. Or, if trends don’t move in that direction, perhaps provide a hedge and foot in the door of what will happen.

To that end, there are three areas in which Workbox Ventures will invest. The first is HR technology that might help companies run geographically dispersed teams of people and create ways for them to better work together.

Next, financial technology and “the nuanced interplay between strategy and financial performance in teams whose goals are more ambitious than ever, requiring new approaches to collaboration given that physical proximity is far from guaranteed.”

Third is property technology to better unearth benefits that flex space and hybrid approaches to work could offer “that no one saw coming, enabling leading businesses to tap into new talent pools and equip teams with the physical resources they need, wherever they may be.”

Heading the VC group is Phillip Leslie, who is becoming its managing partner. His career includes time at Microsoft on technology teams, selling ventures in HR and finance, and then investing in ventures as managing director of TechNexus.

“Workbox has become the modern-day workplace for many high-performing companies,” the release quoted Leslie. “Our venture arm seeks to become a key capital partner for ventures having the greatest positive impact on this next generation of high-performing companies.”

It’s an interesting time for proptech venture capital as confidence in the category by start-up founders and investors is down. Many start-ups have heard that it’s a bad time to raise capital, either through equity or debt. That could give Workbox Ventures a more open investment field that might otherwise be the case.