Barry Gosin, Amol Sarva and Alex Sapir (Credit: Getty Images and Jhila Farzaneh for The Real Deal) Knotel closed a $70 million in a Series B funding round on Tuesday, with plans to expand rapidly and muster a serious challenge to industry leader WeWork. The flexible office space startup led by Amol Sarva has now raised $100 million between two seed rounds, and is valued at $500 million, according to research firm Pitchbook. Knotel, which in the past two years has leased more than 1.1 million square feet in New York, San Francisco and London, said the new funding will allow the company to double in size. Knotel’s latest funding round was led by Newmark Knight Frank and the Sapir Organization, with participation from the Wolfson Group, the Moinian Group and Wainbridge Capital. Sarva, who also co-founder of Virgin Mobile USA, was embroiled in a public feud with WeWork last year, accusing the company of corporate espionage. In response, he parked a school bus in front of WeWork’s headquarters with a sign that read “graduate from co-working” — a reference, Sarva said, to the company’s perceived frat culture. VIDEO﻿ The company’s $25 million Series A round was supported by Bloomberg Beta, Invest AG, Observer Capital, Rocket Internet, and 500 Startups. Knotel targets small-to-mid-sized companies with flexible leases. It recently announced plans to launch a blockchain-based online office listing data platform called KnotelKoin, with aims to take down another billion-dollar behemoth, CoStar.
Flexible office space start-up Knotel is set to challenge industry leader WeWork after securing a $70m series B cash injection that brings total funds raised to $100m. That gives the company a $500m valuation. Knotel runs office spaces in New York, San Francisco and London and plans to double in size. The funding was led by Newmark Knight Frank and the Sapir Organisation. In an interview with TechCrunch, co-founder and CEO David Sze said he had been looking for ways of improving productivity at his company, which has offices around the world. Knotel co-founder Amol Sarva had a public feud with WeWork last year, mocking its perceived frat culture.