WeWork competitors form an alliance to take on the shared workspace market

WeWork

Flexible office startups Knotel and Grind formed an alliance as they try to take on WeWork, the companies announced Thursday.

From now on the co-working company Grind will refer larger firms and members that want to move out of its spaces to Knotel, which caters to companies in search of a serviced office on a flexible lease.

In return, Knotel will refer freelancers and smaller firms, which it generally doesn’t cater to, to Grind. As part of the deal, Knotel is taking over Grind’s location at 419 Park Avenue South.

The agreement comes a month after WeWork announced a $4.4 billion investment from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and aggressive expansion plans in Asia, putting pressure on its competitors. Two weeks ago, Knotel parked a bus advertising its services outside WeWork’s headquarters on West 18th Street.

Knotel also announced that it signed a 10-year, 25,000-square-foot lease at Moinian Group’s 55 West 21st Street, bringing its footprint in Manhattan above 400,000 square feet. Skylight Leasing’s Elie Reiss represented the tenant, while Moinian was represented in-house.

Knotel, founded by Amol Sarva, raised $25 million in a Series A round in February.

Grind shuttered its location at 1412 Broadway in the Garment District earlier this year.

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