United Overseas Bank (UOB) recently announced that they have signed a MOU with WORQ and Common Ground to offer up to 20% off the rental of the co-working spaces. Startups and SME’s who are customers of UOB will be able to access these preferential rates.

On top of inking the MOU with WORQ and Common Ground, UOB has also signed the same agreement with 80RR Fintech Hub SG in Singapore and EV Hive in Indonesia. The recently signed deals combined with their existing partnership with Toong in Vietnam totals up to 33 co-working locations across South East Asia.

According to UOB’s their latest initiative addresses one of the top constraints to businesses’ cross-border expansion– managing the set-up costs associated with expanding overseas.

Ms Janet Young, Head of Group Channels and Digitalisation, UOB, said,

“We found in the ASEAN SME Transformation Study that more than half of SMEs have plans to expand in the region over the next three years. However, factors such as cost and difficulty in finding suitable local partners are a concern to them.” She added,”By using co-working spaces offered by our network of partners, our customers will be able to set up their operations in a new market in a fast, flexible and cost-effective way.”

Unlike traditional leases which typically require a two- to three-year commitment, co-working spaces offer businesses more flexibility in determining the duration of the lease based on their needs. There is also no need to incur the upfront costs of renovation and office furniture or to manage tasks such as setting up their utility or internet services. Prior to this partnership, many of these co-working locations are already popular among the fintech startup community