Winning Connections: Shopee, Workspaces Designed for Growth and Collaboration

Winning Connections: Shopee Workspaces Designed for Growth and Collaboration

Winning connections are forged when you team up with the right partner. Going beyond the role of an ordinary landlord, here’s how CapitaLand supports tenants like e-commerce giant Shopee in advancing their business goals.

Unveiling Shopee's New Regional Headquarters

From its humble startup in Murray Street, the fast-evolving Shopee (headquartered under Sea Group) tapped on CapitaLand's extensive network and expanded seamlessly into multiple locations to support its rapid growth in Singapore amidst disruptions brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Take a peek at their spanking six-storey regional headquarters at the Singapore Science Park and see how they have transformed their new space, which can house up to 3,000 employees, into a connected workspace purpose-built for community and collaboration.

Shopee outgrew its building due to its growing headcount and the additional space required for safe distancing measures.

Leveraging CapitaLand’s Core-Flex Solutions

Along with Sea’s evolution to a global consumer internet company, it has continued to expand its team to better serve the needs of users and businesses transitioning to the digital economy. This has led to challenges in housing new hires.

While waiting for its regional headquarters at Singapore Science Park to be completed, Shopee leased space at Ascent, which soon reached capacity as the company continued to expand rapidly.

Instead of committing to any new leases during the transition period, Sea approached CapitaLand for a flexible option that would meet its needs.

Under a hybrid work model that integrates conventional office space (core) and flexible space (flex), Sea was able to take up 250 seats at Bridge+, CapitaLand’s flexible workspace offering at Ascent.

In September 2019, Shopee moved out of Bridge+ when it shifted into its new 244,000 sq ft home at Singapore Science Park. By the end of 2020, more room was needed as the business continued to grow rapidly. With additional space required due to safe distancing measures for returning employees, Shopee decided to take up seats at Bridge+ again.

“Sea’s rapid growth makes it challenging for them to predict headcount in the short term. With CapitaLand’s breadth and depth of asset classes, and our thorough understanding of Sea’s business and operations, we can respond to and accommodate their requirements quickly. The space solutions we’ve provided for Sea caters to their current needs while giving them enough time to plan for the longer term.”

Corrine Toh, Head, Leasing & Enterprise Solutions, CapitaLand Singapore

Growing with the Business

As Sea’s business continues to grow, the team is expected to expand further too.

“This will necessitate having an easily scalable space which offers us the flexibility to exact our operational needs, as well as deliver an environment which fosters collaboration and innovation among our teams,” said Huang Qunyi, Vice President of Corporate Real Estate at Sea.

While Sea plans a more permanent solution, CapitaLand’s core-flex ecosystem provides the tech giant with an interim space that it can utilise to make new hires feel comfortable and part of the bigger community.

The flex space at Bridge+ enables Shopee to provide a sense of belonging for new hires.

And with a flex space solution, Sea does not have to worry about renovations or getting the infrastructure ready. Bridge+ takes care of the hardware and employees can start work straight away. To ensure employees at Bridge+ receive the same benefits as the Shopee building, Sea installed a display fridge and filled it with free beverages.

“CapitaLand has been a great partner for Sea as we’ve grown over the years. Like us, they understand that space is more than just developing a physical work environment, rather a concept to be defined and refined over time as a business grows.”

Huang Qunyi, Vice President, Corporate Real Estate, Sea

The core-flex solution caters to Shopee’s current needs while giving them time to plan for the longer term.

“Having this understanding has allowed us to reimagine and improve our business space solutions as our business evolves with market demand. We look forward to growing this partnership for many more years to come,” added Huang.

Key fact
About Sea	Sea is a global consumer internet company founded and headquartered in Singapore, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It operates three core businesses across digital entertainment, e-commerce, and digital financial services, known as Garena, Shopee and SeaMoney respectively. Sea aims to better the lives of consumers and small businesses through technology.
Headquarters	Singapore
Office Space in Singapore	Shopee & Seamoney • Conventional Office Space - 244,000 sq ft at Shopee Building, 5 Science Park Drive • Flexible Space - 200 to 300 seats at Bridge+ Ascent Garena & Shopee • Conventional Office Space - 202,500 sq ft at Galaxis, one-north

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