November 15 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian software company Puzl Web Development will invest about 15 million euro ($16.5 million) in the expansion of its IT coworking space Puzl CowOrKing through the purchase of office space in Hungary's capital Budapest, local media reported.
The company has plans for further expansion in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which also include Bucharest, Prague, Vienna, Athens, Skopje and Belgrade, Thibaut Taittinger, the company's CEO, said as quoted by local news outlet Trendingtopics.bg in an interview published on Thursday.
"Probably we’ll raise some equity funding in our UK company and we’ll be raising loans. We give 8% interest per year, for a six year period, and during this period we’ll repay 50% of the principal on a quarterly basis. We are looking at the European VC market, not touching the US for now," Taittinger said regarding the financing of the expansion project.
The company will be raising the money in phases - in 2020 it needs to raise 10 million euro.
Puzl Web Development, established in 2015, is fully owned by UK-based Puzl Web Ltd, according to data available on the website of the Bulgarian commercial register.
Puzl Web Development is currently focused on Budapest because the city is bigger and attracts more foreigners. At the moment the coworking market in Sofia is among the most competitive in the CEE region, while Budapest has less coworking spaces, the CEO commented.
As regards the opening of a second location in Bulgaria, the company thinks that it is more important to take a step abroad.
Within the past four years Puzl CowOrKing has evolved into a co-working of over 7,008 sq m. Over 90 companies, including startups, engineering teams of larger companies along with freelancers, are currently working there.
($ = 0.90625 euro)