Giselle Makarachvili has stepped down from her post as the CEO of Singapore-based co-living platform Hmlet, according to a LinkedIn post on Tuesday.
Makarachvili said in the post that she will be taking a break from her career to enjoy motherhood. “After years of non-stop, I chose to take a short pause to enjoy adventures with my one-year-old as we count 5 weeks to welcoming his sister,” Makarachvili said. “The journey of motherhood keeps inspiring me in so many ways and I continue to teach myself how to raise my kids into a more sustainable and healthier planet.”
Makarachvili joined Hmlet in January 2020 as its vice president of operations before moving up the corporate ladder as its chief operating officer in February 2021 and then as its chief executive officer in October 2021, according to her LinkedIn profile.
She will be succeeded by Jonathan Wong, TechinAsia reported. A Hmlet’s representative said an official announcement will be made next week.
Wong was previously the regional head of strategy and expansion at CloudKitchens as well as the head of ridesharing for Singapore and Malaysia at Uber.
Hmlet was founded in 2016 by Yoan Kamalski and Zenos Schmickrath. Both Kamalski and Schmickrath have left the company.
It merged its operations with European co-living startup Habyt in 2022. In March 2023, the company introduced three additional properties in Hong Kong and Japan. Hmlet also launched its first hotel in Singapore in January 2023.
The company, however, shut down its Australia operations in 2021 and filed for voluntary liquidation to focuses on its core markets of Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.
Hmlet had raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Burda Principal Investments in 2019. Sequoia India, Mitsubishi Real Estate and Australian venture capital firm Reinventure had also participated.