WeWork to Buy Meetup, a Hub for Hobbyists
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WeWork and Meetup: blending work and play.
The deal, which will be announced this morning, is part of WeWork’s plan to move beyond providing co-working spaces. The wildly ambitious company, which is already planning a kindergarten for budding entrepreneurs, wants to fit into more aspects of everyday life.
That’s why it is spending an undisclosed amount to buy Meetup, the 16-year-old social network that connects like-minded hobbyists.
“It’s like a magical puzzle that fits together,” Scott Heiferman, the chief executive and a co-founder of Meetup, told DealBook’s Michael J. de la Merced.
Having Meetups in WeWork spaces helps make use of office locations that tend to be busy during the day and less so after hours. But Shiva Rajaraman, WeWork’s chief product officer, asserted that the union was about building a bigger sense of community: “This is a great tool to introduce people to their passions.”
How it came together: Mr. Heiferman and his team, who hadn’t raised outside money in years, began looking for investments to finance international expansion. That eventually led to a meeting with WeWork’s co-founder and C.E.O., Adam Neumann.