MakeSpace Labs Inc., a business specializing in valet-style self-storage services in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C., has secured $30 million in financing from records-storage company Iron Mountain Inc. As part of the deal, the two companies will enter a strategic partnership to exchange financial and operational resources. MakeSpace will acquire Stashable, Iron Mountain’s valet-storage arm, and provide 2.1 million cubic feet of storage to Iron Mountain and its various subsidiaries, according to the source.

The addition of Stashable will enable MakeSpace to immediately scale to 20 new markets including Boston, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Toronto. MakeSpace will also leverage Iron Mountain to accelerate operational enhancements in its existing markets. The partnership should also allow MakeSpace to quickly expand into new markets in the future, company officials said in a press release.

“Iron Mountain provides a massive global storage footprint, along with decades of operational experience. When combined with our industry-leading proprietary technology, customer service and scalable go-to-market strategy, we have the opportunity to be operationally superior to competitors and exceed consumer demand for hassle-free storage,” said Rahul Gandhi, MakeSpace CEO. “We’re thrilled to work with the leader in information management and secure storage as we work to achieve MakeSpace’s mission of making more space easily accessible to everybody.”

“We’re excited to join forces with MakeSpace on a consumer-storage offering that will help change the market landscape,” added Deirdre Evens, executive vice president and general manager, records and information management, in North America for Iron Mountain. “Iron Mountain’s storage business has been built on securing and protecting valuable records and assets, a value proposition that can be extended into other categories and markets, from artwork, film and music assets to areas like consumers’ valued personal items. The combination of MakeSpace’s consumer-storage brand and frontend customer platform with our operational scale, expertise managing the world’s most valuable assets, and brand promise of trust and security, will allow us to deliver even more value across our storage network.”

The $30 million capitalization follows the $30 million in venture-capital investment MakeSpace received in April 2017. To date, the valet-storage provider has raised $103 million, including funds from actor Ashton Kutcher, NBA star Carmelo Anthony and rapper Nas, the source reported.

Founded in 2013 and based in New York, MakeSpace offers door-to-door service for customers’ stored goods and creates a visual catalog of each box stored in its warehouse. Customers have access to the catalog through a cloud-based platform and mobile app, which allows them to keep track of their items and request them when desired. It serves 24 markets.

Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain is a global storage and information-management firm. Its portfolio includes more than 1,450 facilities comprising more than 90 million square feet of storage space in about 50 countries. Its services include art storage, cloud services, data centers, digital transformation, information management, secure storage and secure destruction.

Sources:
BusinessWire, MakeSpace and Iron Mountain Team Up to Bring On-Demand, Flexible Consumer Storage to 24 North American Markets
VentureBeat, MakeSpace Raises $30 Million to Pick Up and Stow Your Stuff