Opening a new coworking centre is a slow game. You sign the lease, fit out the floors and hire a team. Then you wait, often for a year or more, while the desks gradually fill. Spanish operator Aticco has just shown there’s a faster route. Instead of building its Lisbon presence from scratch, it has bought one that is already full.
This week the Barcelona-based group confirmed it has acquired the Lisbon coworking business of Nimbler Spaces. The deal adds close to 8,000 sqm across two buildings in the Portuguese capital’s central business district, and both will soon carry the Aticco name. The detail that matters most is that both centres are 99% occupied.
Two buildings, hardly an empty desk
The two sites are in Picoas and around Marquês de Pombal, two of Lisbon’s most established business addresses. Both have recently been renovated. So Aticco isn’t taking on a renovation project or an empty floor plate. It is taking on a working business, with members, revenue and a reputation already in place.
CEO Gabriel Espín called Portugal a strategic market and described the deal as a way to gain scale from day one. Once everything is integrated, Aticco expects to operate around 15,700 sqm in Lisbon. Another site, Aticco República, is scheduled to open in September 2027. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Across the group, the deal takes Aticco to 16 centres in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and Lisbon, with around 87,500 sqm under management. Its community numbers more than 7,500 members from over 400 companies.
The empty year Aticco gets to skip
Every flex operator knows that the ramp-up period is the most expensive phase of a new centre. Rent, staff and service costs run at full speed from the first day, while income takes time to catch up. Buying a centre that is almost completely full skips that phase entirely.
It also removes much of the risk of entering a new market. Aticco doesn’t have to guess whether there is demand for premium flex space at these addresses, because the occupancy figures already show it. The trade-off is that certainty costs money. A buyer typically pays more for a full business than for an empty floor, and also inherits someone else’s contracts, pricing and customer expectations.
Aticco’s recent numbers suggest it can afford to be ambitious. The group closed 2025 with €16 million in turnover, up 23% on the previous year. It expects to reach close to €25 million in 2026, with EBITDA of around €4 million, and aims to double EBITDA to roughly €8 million in 2027. Its 20,000 sqm Aticco Diagrame campus in Barcelona, which it describes as the largest coworking space in Southern Europe, reached 97% occupancy within months of opening.
The company is also growing in more ways than one. Management agreements, where building owners share in the profits and Aticco avoids long-term leases, now cover 53% of its floor area, up from 23%. It has also set up a €180 million investment vehicle with All Out Capital Partners to buy office buildings and run them as coworking spaces. Acquisitions, management deals and owned buildings each give Aticco a different way to grow, and few mid-sized operators have all three.
Lisbon’s appetite for flex space
Lisbon has spent the past decade building a reputation as one of Europe’s most attractive bases for international companies, start-ups and remote professionals. That has created steady demand for high-quality, flexible office space in central locations. That kind of space is hard to build quickly in a historic city with a limited supply of modern buildings.
The deal also fits a wider pattern across the Iberian Peninsula. Regional operators are turning into cross-border players. Aticco is moving deeper into Portugal, and others, such as OneCoWork, are expanding across Spain. As the market matures, scale matters more for securing good buildings, negotiating with landlords and serving larger corporate clients.
There is a lesson here for smaller and independent operators too. A well-run, well-filled centre has become a sellable asset in its own right. For founders who want to exit, or refocus on other markets, a growing buyer looking for instant scale can be an attractive partner. Nimbler Spaces has also operated locations in Barcelona, Chicago and Miami.
New name, same regulars?
The biggest challenge in any coworking acquisition is keeping the community intact. Members chose Nimbler, not Aticco. A new name, a new management style or new pricing can all prompt people to reconsider. How Aticco handles the rebrand over the coming months will decide whether that 99% occupancy is something it keeps or something it starts to lose.
There is also an opportunity. Aticco already lets members use its other buildings in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia. If Lisbon members gain access to that wider network, it could be a strong reason to stay, especially for companies with teams in both Spain and Portugal.
From opening sites to acquiring them
Aticco’s move shows how the flex market is growing up. Growth is no longer only about opening new sites as quickly as possible. It is about buying proven businesses, partnering with landlords and choosing the right model for each market. For operators across Europe, the question is shifting from “where can we open next?” to “what can we buy, manage or partner on?”
