Peer-to-Peer Self-Storage Marketplace ‘Neighbor’ Raises $53M in Series B Funding

Neighbor Inc., a national peer-to-peer self-storage marketplace, has raised $53 million in a Series B funding round led by Fifth Wall, a venture-capital firm focused on the global real estate industry and property technology. Neighbor intends to use the money on market awareness and continued national expansion, according to the source.

New investors include DoorDash CEO Tony Xu and StockX CEO Scott Cutler, both of whom will serve as company advisers. Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which led a $10 million Series A funding round in January 2020, also contributed to the latest round, the source reported.

Neighbor CEO Joseph Woodbury indicated the company’s year-over-year revenue has grown five times, while organic reservations have grown sevenfold. “We really grew into a national business over the last year and now have active renters in more states than Public Storage, which is a $43 billion publicly traded company,” he told the source.

Recent population trends have helped fuel the company’s growth, including a wave of exodus from urban areas and others related to the coronavirus pandemic. “If you think about it, fundamentally on the demand side, everyone’s moving out of these major metro areas like New York and San Francisco, and are moving to these more rural locations. All that moving activity has created a lot more storage demand,” Woodbury said. “In addition to that, people are just spending more time at home and cleaning out their homes more. And they no doubt need storage as a result of that.”

In addition to marketing to residential hosts, Neighbor began expanding its commercial real estate footprint last year, targeting businesses that want to turn unused space into revenue-generating storage areas. The move attracted Fifth Wall, whose limited partnerships include more than 65 of the world’s largest real estate operators. Partners Acadia Realty Trust and Jamestown LP are leveraging properties into the Neighbor platform, according to the source.

“We are sort of the bridge between the largest owners and operators of physical real estate assets and the most disruptive technologies that are impacting those property managers and landlords,” Fifth Wall partner Dan Wenhold said. “And Neighbor fits perfectly into that thesis for us.”

Based in Lehi, Utah, Neighbor primarily offers peer-to-peer storage in the state, though its platform invites hosts to connect with storage seekers anywhere in the nation, according to its website. The company also received $2.5 million in seed funding in 2018.

Source:
TechCrunch, Neighbor Raises $53M for Self-Storage Marketplace After 5x YoY Revenue Growth