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Do you travel a lot for work? Or have boxes of sports trophies from childhood that you hold dear, but is eating away space in your house? A string of start-ups such as StoreMore, BoxMySpace, and Boxme will help you out.
With the rising urban population, and the workforce becoming increasingly mobile, working professionals as well as companies are facing space crunch.
These online marketplaces for storage services let you log in on their platform, browse facilities across locations, enter check-in and check-out date, and book space according to budget and location. Vans will pick-up the goods from one’s home and drop them to the storage facility and vice versa. Based on the size and volume of goods, a monthly rent will be charged.
“Every item that enters the warehouse gets a unique bar code. There is a strict protocol for fire safety, water safety, pest control, CCTV cameras at entry/exit, etc,” says Pooja Kothari, Managing Director, StoreMore.
The company is co-promoted by the family office of the Burmans, who own Dabur. It recently raised angel funding from Noida-based Bedrock Venture Management Pvt Ltd.
StoreMore has a network of 10 facilities across multiple locations in NCR, boasting of nearly 1 lakh sq ft of space. It doesn’t own any space.
Low flexibility“While there is a lot of warehousing supply that exists, but there was no marketplace that one could log in and book. Booking a warehouse is extremely tedious, there is an 11-month lease and 4-6 month security deposit, with little room for flexibility,” says Kothari.
Mumbai-based BoxMySpace, founded by Pratyush Jalan, has tie-ups with 16 warehousing firms. “We are also tying up with builders wherein we can offer storage solutions when projects are redeveloped,” Jalan said. In July, the company had raised ₹1.92 crore from a group of individual investors.
Bengaluru-based Boxme is currently focussing on the storage needs of the B2B segment, especially furniture and equipment storage, while StoreMore is focusing on B2C as well. BoxMySpace has already added a small facility in Pune and is set to enter Bengaluru by September. “Boxme manages 55,000 sq ft of space in Bengaluru and plans to enter Mumbai by December this year,” founder Akhil Mohanan said.
StoreMore, which is currently marketing through social media aims to be in 10 cities and reach 10 lakh sq ft through small warehousing facilities. “Post NCR, we wish to enter Bangalore and Mumbai,” Kothari says.
StoreMore plans to raise a round of funding by December, while BoxMe looks to tap $350,000 by September this year.
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