Talent Garden, Europe’s largest innovation hub operators who opened their first capital city campus in Dublin last October, has announced a new funding round of €44 million led by TIP, Social Capital, Indaco Ventures and European family investors, which will give Talent Garden a strong foundation to continue its ambitious international expansion.
Talent Garden is now present in eight countries and has 23 active campuses, with the Talent Garden Innovation School present in five of those countries, including Dublin. Driven by its mission to create vibrant local platforms of tech ecosystems and connect them globally, the company is planning to open 20 new international campuses over the next five years. It will expand the scope of the Innovation School in digital training and big summit organisation mixing coworking, education and big events to create a unique model to accelerate tech ecosystems around Europe.
Thanks to this funding, Talent Garden will continue its expansion around Europe with a particular focus on Spain, establishing campuses in new locations in Madrid and Barcelona. Further expansion is planned in Italy where it already has more than 10 campuses, Austria where it has just recently opened and a new campus is scheduled to open in France later this year.
In 2018, Talent Garden opened a new campus in Dublin as part of a strategic partnership with Dublin City University and also created a joint venture with Rainmaking Loft in Denmark, where there are now three locations across Copenaghen with more locations currently being scouted in the nordic region. The new round will also boost the company’s growth in new markets including potential opportunities in Germany, Israel, Benelux and CEE region. To bridge its European community with the strongest global tech ecosystems, it is currently working on a special campus project in San Francisco, due to open in 2020.
Talent Garden Dublin provides Irish members with access and opportunity to collaborate across a growing global network of 3,500 tech professionals, allowing them to scale up and internationalise rapidly.
Mark Bennett, Country Manager of Talent Garden Ireland, explains: “Although coworking facilities will account for 30% of total corporate work space by 2030, our mission goes deeper – to build a community of shared values. We host a dynamic ecosystem of digital innovation where members meet, work, learn and collaborate together. This is cultivated, in part, through events such as workshops, fireside chats with global tech leaders, expert advisory sessions, fundraising talks and panel debates. Launching Ireland’s first ever VC in Residence Programme with Brian Caulfield earlier this year is a great example of how we leverage our network for the benefit of members.”
Initially starting as a coworking network, which is now a booming trillion dollar market opportunity, in 2015 the company expanded its scope of activities and created a unique model combining the future of work, innovative education and networking events. Uniquely different to its vertical competitors, Talent Garden is co-creating and delivering the best value in every market, by working with the strongest local partners – corporates, institutions, entrepreneurs and other innovation ecosystem stakeholders such as Google for Startups, Cisco, Startup300, Rainmaking, Mini, Raiffeisen Bank International, Dublin City University and more than 150 big corporations across Europe.
