CO3 and Medini Iskandar set to create ‘world’s most liveable work space’

KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — Bursting into the local start-up scene last year, CO3 Social Office Sdn Bhd is now collaborating with Medini Iskandar Malaysia (MIM) to develop what it ambitiously calls the “world’s most liveable work space.”

The two companies signed a term sheet yesterday, with an agreement to be signed by June, which would see CO3 opening its social office campus at the soon-to-be completed Medini 9 office complex in Johor Baru.

Unlike regular, co-sharing work spaces, CO3 aims to offer a space which will integrate work and play; where one can even make the office space a venue to unwind.

This includes free yoga and photography classes, as well as an entrepreneurship exchange to Japan, among a host of programmes paid for by CO3 for its members, under the Liveability Model initiative.

“The Liveability Model integrates the elements of work space, lifestyle and ‘ourselves’ into everyday life. We aim to elevate CO3 to a ‘dream work space’ where members of the CO3 community are able to gain access to Special Purpose Spaces (SPS),” its chief executive Yong Chen Hui said.

“Some of these SPS include a creative zone featuring editing hubs, technology hubs, a mini recording studio, and even a virtual reality (VR) hub, which offers the best of hardware, like the state-of-the-art iMac Pros and VR development kits among others,” Yong said, adding that other facilities also include a designer resource centre, a magazine library, and CO3’s much anticipated initiative — the lens library — which would have numerous camera lenses for photography enthusiasts.

Yong said that CO3 is also working with various strategic partners to incorporate more “’lifestyle elements,” such as dining, beauty care, entertainment and even diving lessons.

Meanwhile, MIM managing director and chief executive James Tee said that the time period before the definitive agreement between CO3 and MIM would allow for a comprehensive market feasibility study for CO3’s social office concept, to understand the market situation better.

“We believe that by creating offices with five-star facilities within the office environment make them truly liveable… it’s a concept, a lifestyle, and a community we can create to foster productive use of space, and environment that is conducive for working and living,” Tee said at a press conference after signing the MoU.

At the event, Yong also announced a RM100 million seed fund for aspiring entrepreneurs under its reddotX initiative.

The budding business magnates will be put through an intensive selection process, and stand to qualify for up to RM100,000 in financial aid.

“CO3 is in the process of fundraising. We have almost concluded that. So from that allocation of funding, RM100 million is coming from CO3.

“CO3 will commit RM 100 million to the reddotX programme in the next three years, to develop 1,000 red dots (entrepreneurs and reddotX campuses), and eventually to form an ecosystem (for entrepreneurs),” Yong explained. – Malaymail