Breather Gets Fresh $45 Million Investment

NEW YORK — Breather, a provider of flexible and private workspace, has raised approximately $45 million in fresh financing led by Menlo Ventures and other firms including Canadian pension fund la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (“la Caisse”), Ascendas-Singbridge and Singapore national fund Temasek.

Breather has raised nearly $120 million to date, with locations in more than 300 buildings across 10 cities and more than half a million square feet worldwide. The company’s main presence is in New York City, San Francisco, Toronto, and London. Previous investors have included Menlo Ventures, Valar Ventures, RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures and Real Ventures.

“Our customers include businesses of every size, from growing startups to leading enterprise organizations, to provide space solutions that scale to their needs,” said Julien Smith, founder and CEO of Breather. “Breather enables businesses to access the space they need when they need it, with the freedom to scale usage up or down when they want to. Working with our new equity partners increases our capacity to bring that freedom to even more businesses worldwide.”

While the alternative workspace industry has grown to include many players, unlike coworking, Breather has achieved significant success partnering with landlords in each of its markets to create private workspace solutions for their growing portfolios, positioning buildings for today’s changing workforce. Breather’s proprietary booking and access technology are key drivers of flexibility.  The company is also focused on a more robust yield management system powered by machine learning, a unique aspect of the Breather approach and an area of focus as they continue to optimize their ability to offer modular real estate solutions for companies of all sizes.

“Breather is a young, innovative and fast-growing company with great potential on the international scene,” said Christian Dubé, Executive Vice-President, Québec, at la Caisse. “Through its unique and innovative business model, Breather has demonstrated a unique capacity to position itself among the leaders in a rapidly transforming industry through a focus on technology and an ongoing emphasis to optimize yield management through machine learning. We look forward to leveraging our well-established global network in support of Breather’s expansion into new markets.”

Ascendas-Singbridge, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore, recognizes the unique opportunity Breather represents as an investment in the future of workspace.

Yi Ta Chng, CEO, Business Community & Development, at Ascendas-Singbridge said, “Businesses in Asia and worldwide increasingly seek out real estate options with more flexibility than traditional leases and other long-term commitments. We see how Breather’s innovative approach to ‘space-as-a-service’ is solving a real need in the market that other models like coworking have not and we look forward to supporting Breather in bringing that future to reality.”