Talent Garden: Italian Coworking Operator Raises €44M for Expansion in Europe and also CEE
Whenever there is a gold rush among startups, the coworking space operators are the ones to sell them the shovels. In addition to the two giants, WeWork and IWG (= Regus, Spaces) and the social entrepreneurship focused Impact Hub Network; there’s now another player coming from Italy – Talent Garden.
After closing a new round of €44M, the founder Davide Datolli now wants to continue its expansion. The Milan-based company currently operates 23 locations in 19 cities and a total of eight countries. Tamburi Investments Partners (TIP), Social Capital, Indaco Ventures and several European family businesses have provided the capital for expansion in Europe and the US.
Going East
Talent Garden’s development starts with the German-speaking markets and will continue further eastern to Benelux, CEE and Israel. The newest location in Vienna, the Talent Garden with minority shareholder startup300, is the first step of the Italians in the German-speaking countries. There will also be locations in Germany, but first, the focus market of Spain will be processed with a hub in Madrid soon to open.
Strategically, Talent Garden is avoiding its big rival, WeWork, and wants to focus on “emerging second and third locations,” rather than rushing into leading startup hubs like London, Berlin or Paris. To be able to anchor themselves locally, the Italians like to cooperate with local companies such as Google for Startups, Cisco, Startup300, Rainmaking, Mini, Raiffeisen Bank International or Dublin City University.
Compared to its competitors, Talent Garden is rather small:
| IWG | WeWork | Talent Garden | Mindspace | Ucommune | Impact Hub | |
| Countries | > 110 | 34 | 8 | 8 | N/A | > 50 |
| Cities | > 1.000 | 97 | 19 | 13 | 37 | > 100 |
| Spaces | 3.000 | 514 | 23 | > 20 | 200 | > 100 |
| Members/Users | 2.5 million | 400,000 | > 3,500 | N/A | > 120,000 | > 16,000 |
| Valuation | $ 1.8 billion (Stock Exchange) | $ 20 billion (Investors) | N/A | N/A | $ 1.8 billion (Investors) | N/A |
| HQ | Luxembourg | New York | Milan | Tel Aviv | Beijing | Vienna |
The Bulgarian IT only coworking space Puzl CoWorKing is also currently expanding to CEE starting with a location in Budapest. News and insights coming soon.
