Despite $1.9B in losses funding expansion, WeWork confidentially files for IPO

DURHAM – As WeWork continues to expand its global footprint in the co-working space, the company announced on Monday that it confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in late December.

“This process will enable WeWork to make the decision to become publicly traded, subject to market and other conditions,” the company said in the release.

“[We have] no further comment beyond that,” a spokesperson told WRAL TechWire.

Should the company eventually decide to go public, it will have to convince investors it can eventually turn a profit. Even though the company continues to grow – it’s revenue more than doubled last year to $1.8 billion according to financial results released in March – it is also hemorrhaging money. It reported around a $1.9 billion loss funding its breakneck expansion.

However, it is still considered one of the most valuable privately held companies in the US at around $42 billion.

Founded in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey, the firm has grown from one small co-working space in Manhattan to a global empire of shared office space in less than a decade.

The firm already has an office in Charlotte and Durham, with a second slated for the Bull City and another for Raleigh. Both are expected to open this summer.

“We are just scratching the surface here,” Bobby Condon, WeWork’s Southeast general manager told WRAL TechWire earlier this week.

On Monday, coinciding with the IPO announcement, the company also released its first-ever Global Impact Report, citing that it supports 680,000 jobs and $122.3 billion in total GDP.

“If the WeWork economy was its own city, its GDP would be equivalent to the output of cities like Vancouver, Dublin, or Austin,” the report cited.

The question still remains, however, whether those contributions can overshadow the company’s losses to entice investors’ appetite for a WeWork IPO.