Only three months after its launch in Paris, the office-sharing platform Fiveoffices announces that it has raised €3.2 million from business angels to strengthen its presence in Paris and the Ile-de-France region and to pursue its international development.
Founded in April 2022 by Robert Glaesener (co-founder of Talkwalker) and Dan Schneider, Fiveoffices is a community-driven online portal that offers a new 100% digital office sharing experience, accessible to all, that is flexible and sustainable by connecting companies looking for office space with those who have available and unused space.
With the recent appointment of Carolyn Prestat as CEO, Fiveoffices aims to continue its development in France while initiating its international deployment.
International deployment from 2023
Launched in Paris last October, Fiveoffices already has more than 500 ads online on the platform, for 45,000 m2 of office space available for rent, or 6,000 workstations. The average surface area currently offered for rent is 90 m2.
This fundraising should enable Fiveoffices to successfully deploy internationally, with new launches starting in the second half of 2023.
A dynamic marketplace with strong growth prospects in France and Europe
With 30 million square meters of office space in Paris, 4% of which is available for subletting, Fiveoffices anticipates a market growth of nearly 30% per year due to the acceleration of French working habits and the transformations in the way businesses are being organised since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Since the COVID-19 crisis and the profound transformation of French working habits, companies have reorganized around telecommuting and flex offices to meet an ever-increasing demand for greater flexibility. As a result, commercial vacancy has become an issue in the Paris region, where the milestone of 4 million square meters of empty office space was passed in the summer of 2022, while 20% of the office real estate in the Paris region could be empty by 2030, representing 11 million square meters.
The road to more sustainable and responsible use of office real estate
By making it possible for anyone to sublet these empty offices and put them to new uses, Fiveoffices is part of a sustainable and profitable approach that aims to eradicate empty office space while offering host companies a double financial and ecological benefit: limiting their financial expenses, optimizing and rendering the rented space profitable, while reducing carbon emissions and energy bills.
An easy, low-cost solution that ends commercial leasing headaches for start-ups and small businesses
In addition to being a sustainable and cost-effective solution, Fiveoffices is also more affordable as access to the platform is completely free for companies looking for space and sublease agreements are less expensive than traditional commercial leases or coworking spaces. Fiveoffices' digital interface ensures the easiest possible user experience.
In addition, by offering à la carte office subleases for short periods of 2 to 24 months and total or partial occupancy of 1 to 7 days per week, Fiveoffices breaks with the rigidity of traditional commercial leases over a three-year period (3-6-9 years), which are particularly ill-suited to the needs of start-ups experiencing strong growth momentum, a continuous increase in the number of employees and a growing trend towards hybrid work.
