Coworking giant WeWork is planning to acquire SpaceIQ, a company focused on analytics software that makes more efficient use of office space. The deal is The We Company's latest move into PropTech as it prepares for its initial public offering as soon as September.
The acquisition is characteristic of WeWork, which has bought nine other companies since the first quarter of 2018, most of them with tech specializations. The deals diversify WeWork's tech capabilities, but as an IPO approaches, there is probably another strategy at work.
With PropTech companies under its umbrella, The We Company may be able to convince the market it is more than a real estate firm, and a money-losing one at that, and thus make its $47B valuation more acceptable to investors during an IPO, Crunchbase reports.
Other tech acquisitions by The We Company include the Q2 2019 purchase of Managed by Q, a software platform that facilitates hiring services for offices, as well as Waltz, a building access and security management startup.
In the first quarter of this year, WeWork snapped up Euclid, a San Francisco-based software company specializing in gathering data on people as they move through physical space.
Before that, WeWork acquired Meetup, which helps office space users organize meetings; Case, which makes architectural modeling software; Welkio, an office sign-in system; and Fieldlens, a communication platform for construction sites.
WeWork's IPO has been in the works, or at least talked about, for years. The company filed confidential IPO paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year, and is seeking a multibillion-dollar loan or credit facility ahead of its IPO.
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