In the U.S., a new breed of shared space is cropping up at dizzying speeds: the women-centric, or female-only co-working space. By offering a community for women founders to work closely with like-minded entrepreneurs, these spaces offer a refreshing respite from what has traditionally been a testosterone–dominant world. The Wing in New York, which has an impressive waiting list of 8,000 is perhaps the most iconic of the bunch. It is closely rivaled by a plethora of other female-only spaces including SheWorks Collective, the New Woman Space, and Shecosystem. Many of these spaces, such as Hera Hub often host investor pitch nights, and also have angel investment arms dedicated to securing funding for female entrepreneurs.
Compared to the market in North America and parts of Europe, there are very few female-only co-working spaces or similar ventures in Asia. With the co-working industry projected to account for 10-15% of Southeast Asia by 2030 however, female-centric co-working spaces may be the next frontier that co-working conglomerates are turning to.
Asia’s Startup Ecosystem “Still Nascent”
Even with co-working giants like WeWork and NakedHub making strides in Asia’s shared space race, one of the reasons why female co-working spaces are few and far between in Asia is that the co-working model itself is still relatively nascent.
Laura Huang, assistant professor of management at the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania explains why they have been slow to gain traction in Asia.
“Things like venture capital and seed stage financing are only now starting to become more widespread. The startup ecosystem in a lot of cities such as Mumbai, Beijing, and Shanghai is still evolving. They are getting there, but things like co-working spaces are not always top priority,” Huang says. “Female-only co-working spaces have lagged because we’re still trying to figure out what non-gender specific co-working spaces should look like.”
Indeed, female co-working spaces could actually harm businesses in this new space by effectively limiting their clientele—and thus sales— to one demographic, and decreasing the diversity of the talent pool. Woolfe Works was the first of its kind to open in Singapore 2014, but was forced to close operations in April this year due to dwindling sales.
At the same time, Sarah Chen, a venture investor and co-founder of Asia Women Circle believes that the potential for female co-working in Asia is there, and that it will “only be a matter of time” before it picks up.
"A ‘female-only’ co-working space would serve a growing niche of women who want that sense of community and comfort among like-minded peers, and may hit a particular chord with more religious communities [such as Muslim communities], but this may be a disservice to those that intentionally want to tap on diverse local talent,” Chen says.
But the jury is still out on whether the model is sustainable for the long term, with no empirical evidence suggesting its efficacy. “Having experimented through a career accelerator programme driven by a women's non-profit I co-founded and lead, Lean In Malaysia, women do flourish in an environment supported by other women who they can relate to at a deeper level. But whether a structural space focused on women will drive enough profits for investor return at this stage is left to be seen,” Chen adds.
Chen reminds us that Asia itself is not a single monoculture. Whether female-centric co-working spaces will take off comes down to the question of consumer trends and behavior, rather than cultural norms.
“The women I work with in Singapore and in Malaysia are very different with different needs, and as such a co-working space brand like any other business will need to localize its content to understand the consumer demand,” she says.
Closing The Venture Funding Gap
Closely linked to co-working spaces are the avenues of funding that they could potentially provide to female entrepreneurs, who traditionally receive less funding than their male counterparts. Although significant inroads have been made in recent years, venture capital’s gender funding gap remains a looming issue. A 2011-2013 study on venture capital in the U.S. reveals just 3% of venture capital funding was raised by female CEOS, or $1.5 billion out of $50.8 billion.
Like accelerators and incubators, the co-working space is designed to offer mentorship and networks to founders, and in some cases, angel investment. And while gender-specific co-working has yet to take off in Asia, there is a growing consciousness in the startup community that is now supporting female entrepreneurs by hosting women-led investor boards.
BLOOM, a co-working space of Jumpstart is one co-working space that launched in Hong Kong this year which hosts pitch nights with all-women investor boards. Its cofounder, Chapman Leung told FORBES that the idea came off the back of a Harvard Business Review study which indicated that pairing female-led startups with female VC partners lead to more successful exits than startups financed by all-male VC’s.
“A co-working space is all about community, so when we have a big community of female entrepreneurs, then the community itself will be the source of information, partnerships and even emotional support,” Leung says.
