WeWork is gearing up to launch its co-working spaces in Japan, thanks to a joint venture with SoftBank, SoftBank said today. As part of the arrangement, SoftBank and WeWork will each own 50 percent of the joint venture, which will go by WeWork Japan.
WeWork Japan’s first location will launch early next year in Tokyo. In addition to the U.S., WeWork operates co-working spaces in 16 other countries, including Argentina, China, Israel, India and Germany. To lead WeWork Japan, the company has appointed Chris Hill, WeWork’s first-ever chief operating officer, as its chief executive officer in Japan.
“Both WeWork and SoftBank have established reputations for connecting people and creating partnerships to facilitate innovation and inspire new ideas,” WeWork CEO Adam Neumann (pictured above) said in a statement. “SoftBank shares our tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit and through collaboration we will work to benefit people and communities in many innovative ways.”
Earlier this month, WeWork closed a $760 million round that valued the company at about $20 billion. That came shortly after SoftBank invested $300 million in WeWork. And SoftBank has been making headlines in the tech industry as of late, between raising a $100 billion fund to investing in seemingly any ride-hailing company that’s not Uber.
“Driven by Adam’s superior vision and his highly talented team, WeWork is disrupting preconceived notions of work styles and opening up myriad opportunities for the next generation of creators around the world by taking a scientific approach that fully utilizes the latest technologies,” SoftBank Group Corp Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son said in a statement. “With this joint venture, we look forward to collaborating with WeWork to offer new possibilities for people in Japan.”