WeWork’s revenue doubled last quarter thanks to climbing occupancy rate

WeWork’s revenue climbed 110 percent to $342 million last quarter, according to a staff email Thursday regarding the unicorn’s financial performance.

The increase comes as the co-working startup’s occupancy rate is on the rise, Bloomberg reported. It rose to 82 percent at the end of the first quarter, up from 73 percent a year ago, the report said.

The company expanded to 73 cities — from 40 a year ago — and more than doubled membership to 220,000. Documents associated with the recent $702 million bond sale showed that WeWork lost $933 million on sales of $886 million in 2017, according to Bloomberg.

Enterprise customers now make up 24 percent of memberships, versus 14 percent in the first quarter last year.

At the same time, the company is reportedly seeking to raise money at a $35 billion valuation. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that SoftBank, which previously invested $4.4 billion with the co-working company through VisionFund, is considering another multibillion-dollar investment that would value WeWork between $35 billion and $40 billion. Talks are said to be “in flux.”

SoftBank’s $4.4 billion investment last year was reportedly at a $20 billion valuation. [Bloomberg] — Meenal Vamburkar