The entrepreneurial community at WORQ was lucky to meet King Charles III (former Prince of Wales) while he was on his Commonwealth tour, back in 2017.

As His Majesty succeeded to the throne after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II on the 8th of September 2022, the news brought back memories of the memorable community meet.

King Charles III’s visit gave a lasting impression on the community as everyone reminisced about the encounter that happened on the 3rd of November 2017. Becky Kux, former Portfolio Manager of 500 Startups, remembered him as being down-to-earth, cordial, and friendly, despite his formal appearance as a British monarch in the media.

Stephanie Ping, CEO & Co-Founder of WORQ, added that “he is very engaging in person and is very versatile in the topics of conversation, ranging from startup to business.” Stephanie was surprised to see the King portraying that personality, which is rarely captured in the media.

The visit was made possible through collaboration with MDEC and the British High Commission. Being a strong believer in working together with businesses to tackle world matters, King Charles III wanted to meet the entrepreneur community as part of his visit.

WORQ, a certified Malaysia Digital Hub (MDH) known for its bustling entrepreneurial community, was chosen to be part of King Charles III’s tour. “He wanted to see the young people in the working environment,” Dato’ Yasmin Mahmood, CEO of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), told us.

MDEC as the enabler of the Malaysian tech industry, played a key part in making King Charles III’s visit to WORQ a reality. Dato’ Yasmin told the King himself that Malaysia Digital Hub is part of a strategic government initiative.

“We wanted to promote this kind of space where young people would come together to fit each other’s energy, and I remember him being curious about it being a government initiative,” Dato’ Yasmin elaborated.

Malaysia Digital Hub (MDH) is a certification awarded by the Malaysian government to coworking spaces that meet the criteria designed to benefit the tech community to grow and expand their businesses. “In that sense, people from all over the world can come and converge here,” Dato’ Yasmin said.

Fellow tech entrepreneur, Aaron Sarma, the Former Founder & CEO of Vidi (now a part of AirAsia), who was also present at the meeting with King Charles III, sees the visit as an opportunity to strengthen the relationship between the UK and Malaysia in the tech industry.

“These two countries have always had a strong relationship, and there are many [British] founders in Malaysia and also a lot of our founders are living in the UK,” Aaron said.

It is undeniable that King Charles III’s visit to WORQ in 2017 gave it global recognition. As a hyper-localised coworking space, such exposure is pivotal to its growth as a leading coworking space in Malaysia.

WORQ caters to workplace needs by fostering deep connections within the coworking community. “This is the first of its kind in Malaysia – a co-working productivity community, what I mean by that is we help businesses to be more productive by providing a supportive community within the space,” Andrew Yeow, CFO & Co-Founder of WORQ, explained.

Richard Ong, Director of Startup Grind, the event highlighted WORQ as “a great venue to meet entrepreneurs. Even the embassy has decided that it would be the best place to visit, [to meet] grass root entrepreneurs.”

With that, the community at WORQ would like to wish His Majesty good health and strength throughout His reign.