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Tech Temple wants to localise the spaces and attract a vibrant community, WeWork wants to help startups to tap into its global network

Daryl Chung and YJ Liao contributed to this report. 

The world’s most recognisable brand in the co-working space, New York City’s WeWork, has been making noise about entering the Chinese market for the first half of 2016 and this week it announced a concrete step to make that happen.

WeWork and the Beijing-based Tech Temple have entered a strategic partnership that will involve WeWork passing operational control of its Asia headquarters in Shanghai to Tech Temple.

“We are very honored for TechTemple to join the WeWork family, there will be increased engagement and activity between the resident members of TechTemple and WeWork,” said Fred Liu, WeWork’s General Manager for China, in an official statement translated from Chinese.

“The cooperation of both WeWork and TechTemple will facilitate business collaboration between both enterprises-in-residence (referring to Tech Temple and WeWork), and we expect to see an increased collision in creativity resulting in innovative outcomes.”

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WeWork is pioneering the ‘franchising’ of its co-working brand and as a result has over 80 spaces globally and is building its presence across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. While the Tech Temple agreement is the first of its kind in Asia, the WeWork website advertises plans to open offices in India, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Sydney.

Tech Temple is a natural ally as it is one of the oldest and most recognisable Chinese co-working companies. Founded in 2013, the company has had 200 startups come through its doors.

The idea of the partnership is to introduce localised resources and services via Tech Temple, while allowing Chinese startups to tap into the WeWork network to help facilitate potential moves overseas. Tech Temple also hopes it can help WeWork attract a wider variety of companies in order to make the co-working space as vibrant as possible.

The partnership will last for ten years.

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Photo courtesy of WeWork.

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