Breather Raises $45 Million to Open Flexible Workspaces Around the World

The leading Canadian flexible workspace provider has raised a new round of capital.

Breather has announced a $45 million USD round of financing led by Menlo Ventures with other firms joining including la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Ascendas-Singbridge and Temasek.

The Montreal-based company offers short-term office rentals, whether it be travellers popping in for a few hours or new startups renting out a few desks until they outgrow the space and move onto something larger. The market has become a multi-billion dollar industry with several huge names all operating locations in a single city while still seeing success and growth.

This new round of financing marks Breather’s first foray into working with real estate companies on the investment side of things, which is a natural progression considering Breather often operates smaller spaces in buildings owned by other holding groups or companies. So far, Breather has over 500 locations around the world, including 27 in Montreal and 38 in Toronto—a shocking number considering the company expanded to the city just over two years ago.

Breather Montreal Office Killer Spaces-15
Inside Breather’s Montreal headquarters.

Breather works with landlords to create private workspaces for their customers, as opposed to coworking solutions that often combine several dozen companies and workers together into one space.

“Our customers include businesses of every size, from growing startups to leading enterprise organizations, to provide space solutions that scale to their needs,” said Julien Smith, founder and CEO of Breather. “Breather enables businesses to access the space they need when they need it, with the freedom to scale usage up or down when they want to.”

The new partnerships formed through this funding—especially with Ascendas-Singbridge and Temasek—allow Breather to break into international markets even quicker and open new locations across Asia.

“Businesses in Asia and worldwide increasingly seek out real estate options with more flexibility than traditional leases and other long-term commitments,” said Yi Ta Chng, CEO of business community & development at Ascendas-Singbridge. “We see how Breather’s innovative approach to ‘space-as-a-service’ is solving a real need in the market that other models like coworking have not and we look forward to supporting Breather in bringing that future to reality.”

Breather las locations in 10 total cities and covers more than 500,000 square feet. The company has formed partnerships with large organizations like Air Canada in the past to offer exclusive rates and increase their visibility to those travelling and working abroad.