D.C.-based venture capital fund Revolution Growth is leading a $33 million investment in self-storage marketplace platform SpareFoot. The round is also being finance by Insight Venture Partners and Monkfish Equity.
The Austin, Tx.-based SpareFoot, originally known as Homstie when it was founded in 2008, basically acts a single place for people to look for and book storage spaces as they need. It's a central platform for nearly 10,000 self-storage facilities. It looks a bit like a cross between Airbnb and OpenTable in some ways.
“Using the SpareFoot platform, consumers in need of self-storage can quickly and easily find and book a facility that meets their needs based on price, location, and other filterable options,” said Steve Case, co-founder of Revolution Growth in a statement. “At Revolution, we believe that the Internet can be a tremendous force to level the playing field for independent small and midsize businesses. SpareFoot is making that possible by providing a suite of marketing tools for self-storage providers to acquire new customers easily and compete with big brands in the industry.”
The new money will be used to expand SpareFoot into new markets around the U.S. and add new features to its offerings. The investment is certainly enough to help the company seek out new partners for its services. The new round adds significantly to the $59 million in venture capital the company has previously raised. As part of the new funding round, Revolution Growth partner Scott Hilleboe will join the board of directors.
“SpareFoot will use this investment from Revolution Growth, Insight Venture Partners and Monkfish Equity primarily to invest more heavily in product development and engineering,” said Chuck Gordon, co-founder and CEO of SpareFoot. “This investment will allow us to make it even easier for consumers to find the best storage facility in minutes and to help our thousands of independent self-storage operators compete online.”
