Desana, a provider of hybrid workspace software that lets enterprises book flexible office desk space for their employees on the fly, has closed its latest funding round with $7.4 million.
Proptech investor PT1 - PropTech1 Ventures co-led the round alongside JLL Spark, the corporate venture arm of real estate/property tech firm JLL, with further participation from Desana pre-seed investor Techstart Ventures, BGF and Groundbreak Ventures.
"Desana has developed a best in class platform to help companies address the challenge of managing a distributed workforce with a hybrid or flexible model. Their solution uniquely combines ease of deployment and scalability for management teams with great user experience for employees," says Tanguy Quero, investment principal, JLL Spark.
Headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, Desana is witnessing significant demand from enterprises wishing to adjust to new, hybrid modes of working. Since launching in 2019, the SaaS and marketplace platform garnered reach in North America with Desana's team now straddling Canada and the US as well as its UK HQ.
The software connects employers to on-demand workspace in more than 600 cities across 60 countries.
At the heart of Desana's tech stack is a streamlined interface for managing flexible workspace bookings and meeting rooms, underpinned by a time scheduling portal that permits invoicing on the hour, rather than monthly or weekly rates.
Besides flexible payments, it works in much the same way for office occupiers seeking to monitor hybrid working patterns to determine when employees use office space and for how long.
When office leases are due for renewal, enterprises must decide whether the renting cost stacks up with the actual utility that workforces get from attending. Indeed some managers may feel it's a finely balanced decision, given the pros and cons to working environments, and different approaches to productivity from employee to employee.
Desana's data should help, giving corporates hard insights into flexible working culture, beyond just taking qualitative feedback from workers, while also providing an ad-hoc alternative where employees can still meet one another sometimes.
The fresh funding is intended to further elevate global growth, doubling down on the company's US presence where it's winning over HR around California's tech scene, including the likes of Github, Twilio and Sonos.
Michael Cockburn, Desana co-founder and CEO, adds: "We’ve come a long way from launching our initial product from our living rooms in Edinburgh, to working at a global scale with some of the biggest companies in the world as they fundamentally rethink the way they utilise office space.
"We established Desana ahead of one of the biggest shifts in working culture for generations, and this unprecedented transition has driven a huge amount of growth for us. But, given the scale of the change in this industry, we believe that there’s still so much more to come."
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