• Hotdesk, a UAE-based workspace booking app, has acquired Spanish counterpart YADO for an unknown sum.
• Founded in 2019 by Mohamed Khaled, ex-finance director at SWVL, Ali Shweki and Mohamed Elsarrag, Hotdesk allows businesses to get on-demand access to workspaces in their vicinity. 
• The platform claims to have generated over 10,000 monthly bookings in under a year.
• YADO app was founded in 2019, with the aim to offer any workspace needed for companies and freelancers.

Press release 

Hotdesk, the global on-demand workspace booking platform, that provides instant access to co-working spaces at the click of a button, has announced its expansion into Europe, with the acquisition of Spanish-based co-working app, YADO.

The latest news is the first in a series of major announcements set for 2023 as Hotdesk looks to build its presence from the East into the West, and cement its focus as the number one in market when it comes to promoting the ‘New Work Order’. Starting with 15 bookings in its first month, Hotdesk’s growth story has gone from strength to strength, with the business growing to take over 10,000+ monthly bookings in a year since inception.

The acquisition of YADO will enable Hotdesk to further increase its footprint in key markets across the globe, and double down on its core proposition of providing hyper-local experiences for its users. YADO, the Barcelona-born app, has been operating since 2019, and charts over 100 co-working spaces across major cities in Spain, including Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla, Granada, Málaga and Bilbao.

The idea for YADO is the brain-child of co-founders, Cristina Santa and Anna Albareda, who met during a backpacking trip around Asia. The duo had long recognised the need in their home city of Barcelona for flexible workspaces to work from anytime or anywhere, especially in their respective roles at the time as freelancers. 

This was further fueled during their travels, as they noticed that there were many fellow backpackers, who were looking for spaces to work from during their trip. With the rise of ‘the digital nomad’, the team experienced the ‘lightbulb’ moment of creating an app that would help people to work whilst they’re on the move, especially in markets like Europe, which has a burgeoning startup scene, with the Spanish Start-up Ecosystem ranked number 16 globally when it comes to innovation (Source: Startup Blink). Fast forward a year and the founders achieved their dream of providing an app for flexible workspaces in Spain.

Now, thanks to the acquisition, Hotdesk will infuse YADO’s Spanish DNA and hyper-local approach to be able to offer increased opportunities for those looking to work in a co-working environment around Spain and other Spanish-speaking markets, with users and local companies alike being able to log into the on-demand service for booking desks, meeting rooms and offices by the hour, day, month or year. =

Commenting on the acquisition of YADO, Mohamed Khaled, the co-founder and CEO of Hotdesk, said: “With Dubai as our home-base, Hotdesk was always designed to become a global play. The coworking scene and hybrid work adoption in Spain is strong, with a range of young professionals ranging from freelancers to creatives, SMEs to flexible Enterprise. We are super happy to be working with Anna and Cris, and we welcome them into the team through the acquisition of WE YADO, S.L. 

“Together, our core focus will be to infuse hyper-local Spanish DNA into our game, especially looking at the growth potential of both Spain and other Spanish speaking markets as we grow across the globe.”

Anna and Cris, co-founders of YADO, said: “We’re very excited to help bolster the opportunities for digital nomads and Enterprise in Spain and beyond. Working remotely is the future, and this is a very interesting moment to join forces with an international company like Hotdesk to help expand the reach across Europe in particular. The market has turned on its head over the last few years, and now there is more demand than ever before for flexible working options. We are looking forward to  expanding the reach, and are thrilled to bring our knowledge of the field to Hotdesk.”