The Wing’s funding just hit the triple digits—with help from some of the biggest names in venture capital, entertainment, and the movement for women’s equality in the workplace.
The fast-growing women’s co-working and social space, launched in 2016 with one New York location and set to be in as many as nine cities in the U.S. and abroad by next year, raised $75 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total backing up to $117.5 million.
That makes The Wing a rare women-led company to raise this much cash this quickly. In another move signifying The Wing’s trajectory, Jess Lee, a partner at the Series C leader Sequoia Capital, will join The Wing’s board of directors along with Upfront Ventures partner Kara Nortman. Both Lee and Nortman are founding members of All Raise, the organization that promotes women in venture capital and Silicon Valley.
Upfront and home-rental company Airbnb joined the round as well, as did a litany of high-profile angel investors: former Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, lawyer Robbie Kaplan, political consultant Hilary Rosen, producer Katie McGrath, and actress Kerry Washington, all connected by their involvement in Time’s Up.
Four women’s soccer players known for advocating for equal pay in the sport—Alex Morgan, Meghan Klingenberg, Megan Rapinoe, and Becky Sauerbrunn—also invested. NEA and WeWork, technically a Wing co-working competitor, returned as investors.
“The Wing is more than a company, it’s a phenomenon. Every Wing location is its own extraordinary community of women who help each other achieve new heights, professionally and personally,” Lee, who was the first female U.S. investing partner at Sequoia, said in a statement. “We’re excited to partner with The Wing on growing its footprint globally in the physical realm and into the digital realm.”
The Wing, founded by CEO Audrey Gelman and chief operating officer Lauren Kassan, now has 6,000 members to its $2,350-a-year physical spaces, which offer programming and community-building alongside their offerings as workspaces, and has moved into media with a magazine and podcast. This money will help The Wing “scale to new heights both offline and online,” Gelman said in a statement.
“The Wing’s mission is the advancement of women through community, and we could not be more excited to partner with such a powerful community of women who lead their fields in tech, Hollywood, policy, and sports,” says Gelman. “This round is proof positive that women can be on both sides of the table.”
The author is a member of The Wing.
