EV Hive merges with Clapham Collective

• Clapham founder Chris Angkasa will join EV Hive’s board of advisors
• EV Hive’s ecosystem will be accessible to all Clapham’s members

EV HIVE, Southeast Asia's largest collaborative workspace, announced the closing of its merger with Clapham Collective (Clapham), a community workspace located at the heart of Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia.

“Medan is the third largest city in Indonesia and a primary gateway to start a business in Sumatra. Through this collaboration, we will fulfil the vision of EV Hive's founders to use co-working spaces as a platform to encourage cross-cultural exchange while strengthening business among the entrepreneurs in Jakarta and Medan,” said Clapham founder Chris Angkasa in a statement.

Through this merger, Chris will join EV Hive's board of advisors.

“As a community leader and angel investor, Chris is very well-regarded. Thus, we are excited to have him as our advisor,” said EV Hive chief executive officer Carlson Lau.

Incubated by East Ventures in 2015, EV Hive aims to serve as a world class community hub for entrepreneurs and startups to start and grow their business.

As a first step of EV Hive's wider cross-city expansion throughout Indonesia, it will connect multi-city entrepreneurs, freelancers, as well as small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by providing community hubs in Medan.

With this merger, Clapham's members will get immediate access to EV Hive's ecosystem, particularly to government bodies, venture capital investors and business partners, as well as skill-based events, workshops and flexible workspaces across the country.

“It is great to see the strong pent-up demand of co-working services and community platforms, particularly from SMEs and startups within region.

“As we expand our footprint to 100 co-working locations region-wide, we will continue to pursue any possible strategy to work closely with local community partners, as well as to connect everyone in our ecosystem,” adds Carlson

Carlson tells Digital News Asia (DNA) that EV Hive and Clapham are, first and foremost, all about community. 

“The EV Hive and Clapham merger brings startups across different cities together to create a stronger partnership where entrepreneurs across cities can leverage on each other’s strengths and connections to grow their businesses and networks. We expect to see more companies from Medan expanding into Jakarta and vice versa.”

Growing from two to 10 locations in six months, EV Hive targets 100 locations across Southeast Asia (SEA).

Welcoming global players

Carlson also says that the Indonesian co-working market is one of the biggest and most rapidly growing in the world. 

“We believe there are 58 million Small and Medium Enterprises that could benefit from co-working.

“Because co-working is still a new phenomenon and most companies and individuals in Indonesia do not know what it is, we welcome more players as more and more people will learn more about co-working and the benefits it provides.”

After the new leadership team invested in and joined EV Hive in May 2017, the company grew 1,200%, achieving more than 1,300 residential active members across all locations.

By Q1 2018, EV Hive will manage more than 34,000 sqm of collaborative workspaces across 16 locations.

“Our mature properties achieved close to 100% occupancy across Jakarta.  We're really excited at our traction and growth and how excited companies and entrepreneurs are when they see and experience EV Hive,” concludes Carlson.

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