However, with the rise of online collaborative tools during the pandemic, what does the future look like for co-working spaces? We interviewed several co-working spaced across the world to find out how they dealt with the change in the past year and what their prospects are for 2022.

While remote work was privileged by larger companies, most co-working spaces stayed open during the lockdowns, driven by the need to accommodate startups who had more flexibility over their work schedule. The freedom of entrepreneurs is therefore what allowed co-working spaces to stay afloat in the time where many other industries were suffering.

In light of the situation, however, the workspace had to be adopted to fit with government regulations and safety measures, reducing the overall office capacity. To compensate for the loss of membership and to support their entrepreneurs during crisis, many co-working spaces started to offer auxiliary, online services – virtual workshops, networking events, games, interviews. Some practices have stayed on after the lockdowns, helping co-working spaces diversify their current offering.

The most interesting finding however was what happened after the wave of lockdowns – since September 2021, co-working spaces report to have had the highest membership growth ever, most of them are now operating at their full capacity. Partially, this can be explained by the growth of the startup ecosystem overall – new startups emerging during the pandemic, coupled with broader government support schemes for entrepreneurs, contribute to the popularity of co-working spaces. In addition, many large corporations see their offices relocate to co-working, to allow for more flexibility and to be closer to the innovation.

Despite the explosion of online collaborative tools, co-working is here to stay and grow in 2022.