Breather Funding, Investors & Competitors
Breather has raised $132M across 5 funding rounds, most recently a $45M Series C in June 2018.
Last Breather funding round
$45M
Series C · Jun 2018
Cumulative funding Breather raised
$132M
across 5 funding rounds
Key investors in Breather
RRE Ventures
Slow Ventures
Real Ventures
SOSV
Menlo Ventures
Valar Ventures
500 Global
GV
About Breather
Breather is a Montreal-headquartered platform offering on-demand private workspaces bookable by the hour, day, or month. Its network spans over 500 locations in cities like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, and Toronto, featuring furnished offices, meeting rooms, and phone booths with high-speed Wi-Fi and AV equipment. Launched in 2012, the app enables instant access via keyless entry, catering to remote workers and traveling teams from enterprises such as Google and Deloitte.
Founded
2012
HQ
MontrealWebsite
Status
Privately held
Customer focus
B2C & B2B
Revenue model
Usage-based, Services
Breather Funding History
Breather has raised a total of $132M across 5 funding rounds.
Breather's first fundraising round was a $2M seed round in June 2013. The most recent completed round was a $45M Series C in June 2018.
Breather funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2018 | Series C | Menlo Ventures (lead); Temasek; La Caisse; RRE Ventures; Ascendas-Singbridge | $45M | Breather is a Montreal-based provider of flexible and private on-demand workspaces, founded in 2013 by Julien Smith and Caterina Rizzi. The company offers bookable private spaces as an alternative to public options like coffee shops, operating in over 300 buildings across 10 cities including London, Montreal, Toronto, and seven U.S. cities, totaling more than 500,000 square feet via leases and revenue-sharing agreements with landlords. In June 2018, Breather raised $45 million in a funding round led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (la Caisse), Ascendas-Singbridge, Temasek Holdings, and prior investors including Valar Ventures, RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Real Ventures. This brought the company's total funding to nearly $120 million. La Caisse highlighted Breather's technology focus and use of machine learning for yield management, expressing support for its global expansion. CEO Julien Smith noted this as the first involvement of real estate players as investors, anticipating further capital from that sector. |
| Dec 2016 | Series C | Menlo Ventures (lead); GV; RRE Ventures; Slow Ventures; Real Ventures; Valar Ventures | $54M | Breather is a Montreal-based startup founded in 2012 that provides on-demand meeting rooms and workspaces through a network of spaces, differentiating from coworking models like WeWork by offering flexible, short-term access without memberships for businesses ranging from startups to enterprises like Apple, Google, Uber, and IBM. In late 2016 (reported around December), Breather raised a Series C funding round variously reported as $40-54 million led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from existing investors Valar Ventures, RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Real Ventures, bringing total funding to $73-96 million at that point. The round followed a Series B in 2015 at a $100 million valuation and a Series A in 2014, positioning Breather as a leader in the on-demand workspace sector; CEO Julien Smith noted hundreds of new businesses signing up monthly, with plans to fuel product innovation, user growth, and expansion into cities like New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, London, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Ottawa, operating over 300 spaces. Menlo Ventures' Venky Ganesan joined the board, praising Breather's vision to connect global spaces on-demand, aligning with Menlo's investments in marketplaces like Uber and Rover from their Opportunity Fund. By 2016, Breather had tripled its footprint, partnered with real estate firms like Cushman & Wakefield, and launched a Breather for Business program. Later developments included a $60 million equity round in an unspecified later year with investors like Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Temasek, and Ascendas-Singbridge, bringing total funding near $150 million and expanding to over 500 spaces in 10 cities, though Breather reportedly faced challenges post-2016 as noted in subsequent coverage. |
| Sep 2015 | Series B | SOSV (lead); Valar Ventures (lead); RRE Ventures; Slow Ventures; Real Ventures | $25M | Breather was a Montreal-based startup providing on-demand private workspaces available by the hour. The company operated by acquiring office space through commercial leases and revenue-sharing agreements with boutique hotels, property owners, and small businesses, with individual spaces ranging from 500 to 3,000 square feet. Breather's co-founder and CEO Julien Smith described rapid initial adoption, noting the company had quickly identified its core audience of entrepreneurs, professionals, creatives, freelancers, and innovative companies seeking flexible, private meeting spaces. In September 2015, Breather raised a $20 million Series B round led by Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures, with participation from Real Ventures, RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures, and SOS Ventures. The funding brought Breather's cumulative funding to $27 million, with Valar joining the board. The company planned to expand its network to new markets including Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Toronto, and London, building on its existing operations in Ottawa and Montreal. However, Breather ultimately struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the nature of its business—physical office space that could not be used—and eventually was sold, marking the end of its venture-backed trajectory. |
| Jul 2014 | Series A | RRE Ventures (lead); Slow Ventures; Vayner/RSE | $6M | Breather provides on-demand private rooms for work, meetings, and relaxation in cities like New York, Montreal, and San Francisco. The company raised a $6.5 million Series A round led by RRE Ventures, with participation from Vayner/RSE, Real Ventures, SOS Ventures, and others, bringing total funding to $7.5 million as of September 2014. At that time, Breather had thousands of active monthly users making reservations every five minutes and planned aggressive U.S. market expansion. |
| Jun 2013 | Seed | Real Ventures (lead); SOSV (lead); John Stokes; Dave McClure; Benjamin Yoskovitz; Gary Vaynerchuk; Loic Le Meur; Jay Baer; Steve Garfield; Lisa Gansky; 500 Global; Mike Walsh | $2M | - |
Who has invested in Breather?
21 investors have backed Breather across its funding rounds, including RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures, Real Ventures, SOSV, Menlo Ventures and Valar Ventures.
Lead investors include Menlo Ventures, SOSV, Valar Ventures, RRE Ventures and Real Ventures.
Breather Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 New York City, NY | 4 | Lead | Jul 2014 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 3 | Participant | Jul 2014 | |
| Montreal | 3 | Lead | Jun 2013 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 2 | Lead | Dec 2016 | |
| Princeton, NJ | 2 | Lead | Jun 2013 | |
| New York City, NY | 2 | Lead | Sep 2015 | |
 Singapore | 1 | Participant | Jun 2018 | |
![](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><rect fill="%23e5e7eb" width="20" height="20" rx="4"/></svg>){kind=small} John Stokes | Montreal | 1 | Participant | Jun 2013 |
| San Francisco, CA | 1 | Participant | Dec 2016 | |
| Montreal | 1 | Participant | Jun 2018 | |
| San Francisco, CA | 1 | Participant | Jun 2013 | |
| Toronto | 1 | Participant | Jun 2013 | |
| New York City, NY | 1 | Participant | Jun 2013 | |
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all 21 Breather investors. Start Free Trial | ||||
Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples
Sign up to see data on 350K+ funding rounds and disclosed revenue and EBITDA valuation multiples, from seed, through growth stage, to pre-IPO.
Start Free TrialBreather Competitors
Breather competitors include listed companies like WillScot, IWG and Wework India Management, and private ones like Mindspace, SparkPlus and Oru Space.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Publicly listed | $2.3B | $606M | $3.3B | 3.1x | |
 Switzerland | Publicly listed | $3.8B | $487M | $2.3B | 2.5x | |
 India | Publicly listed | $255M | $165M | $987M | 5.4x | |
 Tel Aviv | Private | - | - | $250M | - | |
 Seoul | Private | - | - | $134M | - | |
 London | Private | - | - | $49M | - |
Breather Public Comps
Breather is still privately-owned, but its public comps include CBRE, Sumitomo Realty & Development, KE Holdings, Swire Properties, Vonovia, JLL, Swiss Prime Site, CoStar Group, Plaza and PSP Swiss Property.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $41B | $2.5B | 1.2x | 1.1x | 19.8x | 13.6x | |||
| $6.8B | $2.6B | 6.5x | 6.5x | 16.9x | 17.8x | |||
| $14B | $735M | 0.9x | 1.0x | 18.2x | 10.8x | |||
| $2B | $152M | 11.4x | 10.1x | 152.3x | 19.4x | |||
| $6.1B | $4.4B | 11.4x | 17.5x | 15.8x | 21.6x | |||
| $26B | $1.3B | 0.7x | 0.7x | 13.7x | 11.0x | |||
| $670M | $498M | 29.3x | 31.9x | 39.4x | 32.6x | |||
| $3.2B | $183M | 3.6x | 3.3x | 64.1x | 16.7x | |||
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Common questions about Breather
| When was Breather founded? | Breather was founded in 2012. |
| Where is Breather headquartered? | Breather is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. |
| Is Breather publicly listed? | No, Breather is a private, VC-backed company. |
| How much funding has Breather raised? | Breather has raised $132M across 5 funding rounds. |
| What was Breather's last funding round? | Breather's last funding round was a $45M Series C in June 2018, led by Menlo Ventures. |
| Who are Breather's investors? | Breather's investors include RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures, Real Ventures, Menlo Ventures, SOSV, Valar Ventures, Temasek, John Stokes, GV, La Caisse and 11 others. |
| Which companies are comparable to Breather? | Companies comparable to Breather include WillScot, IWG, Wework India Management, Mindspace, SparkPlus and Oru Space. |
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