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Storebox raises EUR52m in financing

Vienna-based logistics and warehousing start-up, Storebox, has just raised EUR52 million in a series B investment round. 

The new investors are mostly international, and include Activum SG, Attila Balogh, Kineo Finance, n3K Holding, Senger-Weiss, Wicklow Capital and Wille Finance. Existing investors Romulus (Hansi Hansmann) and APIC Investments also participated in the round.

The Storebox founders Johannes Braith (CEO), Ferdinand Dietrich (CCO) and Christoph Sandraschitz (CTO) are embarking on a broad internationalisation into European markets. The strategy is two-fold: first, ground-level business premises and unused spaces in secondary locations will be converted into urban multifunctional warehouses that can be rented by both business and domestic customers of Storebox. 

Storebox’s franchise model will also contribute to the company’s further growth – a strategy which has convinced a wide range of international investors to join the Series B financing round.

Braith (CEO) says: “With this investment, we aim to open thousands of locations in Europe over the next few years and to become the market leader in micro-logistics hubs to provide, among other things, the necessary infrastructure for Q Commerce ie, the delivery of online orders within minutes. Storebox already has one of the fastest growing franchise systems in Europe and, with its completely digitised access solution, enables new logistics and warehouse concepts.” 

Further expansion will initially be achieved by increasing the density of the Storebox network in the German-speaking region, primarily in German cities with a population of 30,000 or more. Market entry to several other European countries is also being prepared.

The development of urban self-storage, inner-city, close-meshed and decentralised micro-logistics hubs is a fast-growing global market trend, which is receiving a massive boost from the Coronavirus pandemic and ever leaner logistics solutions. Europe lags behind the USA and China in this area, where considerably more urban self-storage space and more efficient, customer-centric logistics solutions are available for the last mile.

“Due to the booming online trade, several industries are recording enormous growth figures in the home delivery sector. Last mile logistics will require new forms and structures to meet the growing market trends. Storebox, with its decentralised and digitised location network, will play a key role in the development of the important future market of urban logistics,” says Braith.

Currently, there are over 120 locations with the Hamster logo but the growth potential for Storebox in Europe is enormous. While in the USA, there is around one square meter of rentable warehouse space available per inhabitant, in Europe this figure is around one hundredth of that. 

New e-commerce offerings, courier deliveries within a few minutes, rising real estate prices and shrinking living spaces in urban areas are boosting the demand for Storebox’s services. The franchise concept enables third parties to benefit from these megatrends with a proven and transparent business model through building up their own business.
 

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