The Middle East’s largest coworking platform, Letswork, has acquired Krow, a Portugal-based competitor. The acquisition marks Letswork’s first steps into Europe and comes at a time when the startup is looking at expansion opportunities in the growing Future of Work sector.
As a part of the deal, Krow’s founders, Paulo Palha and Joana Balaguer will join Letswork as Country Managers for Spain and Portugal respectively without disclosing any financial details of the deal.
“As remote working becomes a permanent part of people’s lives, Letswork has been successful in building a loyal customer base in the UAE. We can’t wait to replicate this success in new markets under the leadership of Paulo and Joana,” said Hamza Khan, co-founder and CEO of Letswork.
“We are very happy to join Letswork’s team. Krow has always believed in working together with the right partners and the acquisition has given us a chance to be a part of a much bigger family with the same vision,” said Palha.
Founded in 2019 by Omar Almheiri and Hamza Khan, Letswork enables users to work from a network of coworking spaces, hotels and cafes across the globe via a single membership. Users can also rent meeting rooms, offices and creative spaces via the on-demand booking platform. The platform has partnered with over 150 spaces across the UAE and Bahrain, with over 30,000 members from freelancers to remote-working corporations.
“Being one of the first Emirati-founded tech startups to expand globally is a major milestone,” said Omar Almheiri, co-founder and CTO of Letswork. “We’re excited to be flagbearers of the UAE across Europe and beyond.”
Letswork aims to add as many as 1,000 spaces across its network by the end of 2022. It further said that the company is actively looking at other markets in a bid to strengthen its product and international presence.
The company had recently raised an undisclosed sum from Silicon Valley-based 500 Global, Saudi Arabia-based Sanabil Investments and other angel investors. It was also one of three startups to launch out of Emaar Properties’ E25 entrepreneurship program. The company counts Hilton, Marriott, Accor and Emaar Hospitality Group, as its clients amongst others.
In 2021, Letswork had launched the world’s first integrated booking platform for hotel meeting rooms. This SaaS solution enables hotels to provide real-time availability, control, and intelligence across their meeting and business centre facilities to customers looking for short-term workspace solutions.
