Companies
‘Plan has not changed,’ WeWork North Europe director
Watch the video and hear from Henrik Botten Taubøll, WeWork senior director for transactions in the Nordics, Baltics and Netherlands, about how he gained his new role at the coworking giant, the challenges businesses face, WeWork’s large data set and the US serviced office trendsetter’s ongoing global expansion – even after its funding pipeline was narrowed by SoftBank.
After his presentation, Taubøll joined a panel with fellow presenters Matt Lee, head of commercial at Manchester Science Partnerships; Gabrielle Hemmerlind, head of leasing at Savills Sweden; and Andreas Broryd, CEO of Workaround, which helps small firms in Sweden find offices.
Taubøll revealed that WeWork is, “looking actively into all the capital cities in Scandinavia” and “it has just become a major set region in January”, with it being taken off the emerging markets teams’ hands and having a dedicated team instead. He added that the company has a lot of “good leads in properties in Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen and Helsinki.”
In terms of the number of WeWork bases to be opened in Scandinavia, Taubøll said the company does not have a limit: “We have such a high demand so if we find a building we’ll take it, but we will not go to the outer areas of the capital cities in the beginning.”
In response to SoftBank’s shrinking investment from $16bn to $6bn and whether there would be a change in strategy, Taubøll said, “they still secured a $6bn dollar investment. We have a lot of capital dedicated to growth right now, and we’re going to keep the pace going.”
View Henrik’s presentation slides below
PlaceTech Trend Talks Nordics was delivered in partnership with Nordic Proptech Initiative, Node, OBI, Mills & Reeve, Bruntwood + MSP and Redwood Consulting.
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