On-demand storage mega company Clutter have secured a $200m funding round, led by Japanese multinational holding conglomerate SoftBank. The Los Angeles based start-up, set up in 2015, has now received a total of $297m in capital – that’s more than every other on-demand storage startup combined. The investment has resulted in Clutter’s valuation rising to a mammoth $600m.
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SoftBank’s $100bn vision fund has also facilitated groundbreaking investments in other rising companies within the real estate sector, such as WeWork, Opendoor and Compass, making it feasible that profitable long-term partnerships could well be in the offing for the on-demand storage company. Clutter’s warehouse space has increased fivefold since 2017, they now utilise almost two million sq ft of space.
Clutter’s service is centered around an app in which users book staff to come and sort all aspects of the storage process; members of the Clutter team will pack, transport, store and later return the customer’s belongings. The creation of jobs is a beneficial consequence of Clutter’s on-demand service, astonishingly they employ more people than 99.5% of self-storage companies in the US.
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Clutter currently cover eight US locations including New York, Seattle and Los Angeles but are aiming to use this investment to surge into new markets. They plan to penetrate the Philadelphia (Portland, Oregon) and California (Sacramento) markets.
Back in 2017 CEO and founder Ari Mir provided a snapshot of the organisation’s ambition by setting the objective of reaching 50 global markets by 2023 and this investment provides a significant milestone towards the achievement of that goal.
There are increasing demands for developments that provide employment, education and leisure as more people move to urban areas. Self-storage units don’t provide these things, however, new demands for such spaces are emerging all the time.
In 2017 there were approximately 44.6 million sq ft of storage space in the UK and this vast industry has expanded since then. Are on-demand storage companies the new face of the storage industry, or do people want to physically see for themselves that their belongings have been taken care of?
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