HqO’s purpose, as our CEO and Co-Founder Chase Garbarino shared last April, is building technology to create real-world experiences that lead to more meaningful connections. As we look back at 2021, we’re proud to share that we’ve done just that.
We’ve made sure to stay true to our values throughout the year, despite our massive growth and keeping up with an evolving industry. As we look towards 2022, we’re proud to reflect on the experiences and moments that make HqO the leading workplace experience platform in the world.
Our Momentum
In April, we announced $60M in Series C financing from leading VC and CRE firms: Previous investors Accomplice, Insight Partners, JLL Spark, Navitas Capital, DivcoWest, Allegion Ventures, and The Pagliuca Family Office all participated, joining new investors PruVen Capital, Cushman & Wakefield, and Suffolk Tech.
Seven months later, October saw our acquisition of Office App, a leading European tenant and employee engagement platform. Together, we bring holistic workplace solutions for building owners, operators, and corporate employees.
HqO currently powers over 200 million square feet of commercial real estate across the globe. This year alone, we’ve hit the following milestones:
- We newly acquired about 53 million square feet in the U.S. and Canada, almost 7 million square feet of new business in the U.K., and over 4 million square feet in France
- The HqO product can be found in 24 countries and 142 cities
- That equates to over 500 buildings and over 100 landlords
- HqO has raised $107 million in funding to date
- The HqO team conducted 87 launches globally, most of which combined onsite activation with digital events and programming
Company Updates
From our first-ever in-person industry event to numerous new strategic partnerships, we have a lot to be proud of this year!
Strategic Client Partnerships
In 2021, we announced numerous strategic client partnerships with leading global landlords like Cadillac Fairview, Rubenstein Partners, Slate Asset Management, Columbia Property Trust, and Gecina — Europe’s leading office real estate group.
Industry Partnerships
Additionally, JLL announced their strategic investment in HqO this December as the preferred service provider for workplace experience across their portfolio.
We’ve also partnered with best-in-class industry providers on exclusive technology integrations, including the food app Ritual and popular building operations solution Building Engines.
Product Updates
We’ve continued to innovate our product by expanding our offerings to accommodate the return to offices with new amenity, data, and service features.
We also introduced our flex service capabilities to support the hybrid workforce, letting properties create and manage flex space memberships and invoices, allocate monetary booking credits, and create robust booking rules personalized to each tenant or tenant company. On top of these updates, we also achieved rigorous data privacy standards with SOC-2 and ISO security certifications for the HqO product.
EXPERIENCE 2021
This past year also saw us hold our first-ever in-person industry event in New York City, EXPERIENCE 2021.
EXPERIENCE 2021 was a first-of-its-kind commercial real estate (CRE) event dedicated completely to the tenant experience.The day was filled with plenty of opportunities to connect and learn from industry leaders. Several roundtable discussions featured CRE professionals such as Karen Allen, Community Manager at Hines; Chris Masotto, Vice President of Property Management at Columbia; Kayte Singleton, Associate Property Manager at Rubenstein Partners; and Thomas Larance, Head of Experience Management at JLL, to name a few.
If you missed it, don’t worry – we plan to bring EXPERIENCE back in 2022!
Our People and Impact
Despite the challenges presented by the global pandemic – and changes to the ways we live and work – we’re excited to have doubled our employee headcount this past year!
With almost 200 employees worldwide, we’ve expanded our global footprint with offices in New York, Chicago, Dallas, LA, London, Toronto, Amsterdam, and Paris.
Throughout this monumental growth, HqO has remained dedicated to connecting our employees to our community. In March and June, our tenant engagement team partnered up with Building Impact to offer our customers several engaging volunteer opportunities.
In honor of International Women’s Day, tenants virtually assembled stress kits for survivors of domestic violence. A few months later, our tenants assembled rainy day activity kits for LGBTQ+ youth attending Harbor Camps in celebration of Pride Month.
These two experiences contributed $3,410 in volunteer time, and impacted 770 lives. The goods donated in both events totaled at $8,800.
2021: A Year of Industry Leadership
All in all, 2021 was a year of growth, connection, and exciting new experiences. The success driven by our amazing team has been reflected by the awards that HqO was honored with this year, including:
- Built In Boston 2021 Best Places to Work
- GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum Awards (CRE Tech Influencer)
- Finalist for EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award
- Finalist (Tech & AI Track) for New England Innovations Awards
- Proptech Startup of the Year (Proptech Breakthrough Awards)
- Finalist (Placemaking) EG Tech Awards
- Mid Market Growth Runner Up (CREtech RETAS)
- Boston Globe Top Place to Work for 2021
- Building Impact Gold Award 2021
As we enter 2022, we look forward to continuing to put our people and customers first as we create meaningful workplace experiences around the world.
