New York-based MakeSpace has secured $17.5 million in funding to accelerate growth in their self-storage business.
The startup markets itself as a convenient alternative to traditional storage, by making it easy to access your items without ever taking a trip to the facility. MakeSpace offers competitive pricing and guarantees that the rates will never increase.
MakeSpace enables free pickups and same-day service through its iPhone app. Customers can also manage photos of their items via the app and can request to have select items delivered for $19.99 anytime.
“Consumers should never have to visit self-storage and never forget what’s in self-storage,” founder and CEO Sam Rosen tells TechCrunch. There is “opportunity to bring fair and great pricing” while “having access in your pocket.”
The round was led by Harmony Venture Partners and Upfront Ventures, with participation from existing Series A and seed investors. Currently available in just New York, Chicago and DC, MakeSpace plans to use the funding to expand to five new cities.
MakeSpace is trying to provide a modern alternative to businesses like Public Storage. The team claims that storage is a $27 billion industry in the U.S. alone.
Traditional storage centers “are the Blockbuster Video of storage and we are Netflix,” Mark Suster, managing partner at Upfront Ventures, tells TechCrunch. “We deliver a superior product at a cheaper price and we will continue to crush them as our centralization model takes hold. Think about how Barnes & Noble or Borders did when Amazon centralized distribution.”
Other startups in the storage space include Box Butler and Boxbee.
Founded in 2013, MakeSpace previously raised over $10 million in funding from Founders Fund, Carmelo Anthony’s Melo7Tech, Gary Vaynerchuk and others.