Workbox wants to be more than just a coworking and flexible space operator. It wants to be part of the solutions that improve the workplace, whether you're working from home or from the office.
That's why the Chicago coworking startup is launching a venture capital arm that it hopes will bring new workplace innovations to market for its partners and companies around the globe.
The $15 million venture fund — dubbed Workbox Ventures — will invest around three broad areas: HR tech, financial tech and property tech.
But Phillip Leslie, who joined the company as managing partner and will head Workbox Ventures, expects to invest more broadly into any company developing new workplace technologies.
Leslie has experience as a startup executive at four companies, two of which he was the CEO where he grew and sold the company. He has also spent time investing in ventures as a managing director at TechNexus.
"Look at the challenge that companies are having with onboarding new employees," he told Chicago Inno. "Think about someone now that's onboarding into that company from a 1,000 miles away ... What does it take to onboard someone and make them feel confident and comfortable? We want to invest in those solutions."
Though he expects to cast a "wide net," Leslie hopes that a number of Workbox Ventures investments will be from the Chicagoland area.
As working patterns becoming more clear post-pandemic, Phillip thinks changes in workplace dynamics will become permanent, which is why Workbox thinks now is the time to launch the fund.
"The winners and losers as far as solutions ... will become a lot more clear in the next two or three years and we want to be a part of that," he said.
Workbox opened its first location at 420 N. Wabash Ave. in 2019, and it now has four locations throughout Chicago. It recently opened in downtown Minneapolis, its first location outside of Illinois.
The new fund launches at a time when venture capital fundraising has taken a hit across the country and in Chicago.
