- Technology-enabled storage company Clutter recently revealed that it acquired The Storage Fox portfolio for $152 million. These are the details about the deal.
Clutter — a technology-enabled storage company that manages the pickup, storage, and retrieval of your belongings — recently announced that it acquired The Storage Fox portfolio for $152 million. The Storage Fox portfolio is comprised of four properties in New York, including Long Island City, Brooklyn, White Plains, and Yonkers. This acquisition substantially increases Clutter’s presence in the largest city in the US. Clutter is going to rebrand all four facilities and expects them to be fully operational under the Clutter brand by November 2019.
Ever since Clutter launched in 2015, the company has become the leading provider of on-demand storage services, operating in 7 major market areas and over 1,000 cities and towns across the US. With the acquisition of The Storage Fox, Clutter is going to extend its services to customers who need regular access to their belongings such as small business owners, contractors, pharmaceutical representatives, and teachers.
“In the spirit of saying ‘yes’ more, we are proud to offer self-storage services to customers who need local access and want to know their belongings are close at hand,” said Clutter co-founder and CEO Ari Mir. “This hybrid strategy of self-storage and on-demand storage has been our vision from the beginning. It represents an exciting milestone in our long-term strategic plan to create a platform for people to manage their belongings.”
The self-storage industry is considered a $40 billion per year market in the US. And one in nine households utilizes self-storage. There are more self-storage facilities in the US than Starbucks and McDonald’s combined.
Ever since Clutter was founded, the company has invested in people, technology, and logistics to make the storage experience and ecosystem more convenient. And Clutter started by building out its own warehouse network and creating infrastructure for urban areas. Now Clutter is focusing on owning real estate across key markets for offering a comprehensive suite of storage products and services.
“Expanding into self-storage is something we have been discussing since Clutter’s Series A pitch to Sequoia and we are excited to see it come to fruition,” added Omar Hamoui, a partner at Sequoia Capital. “The acquisition reinforces Clutter’s market leadership and expands Clutter services by offering a better experience for customers who need self-storage or on-demand storage.”
Including this round, Clutter has raised a total of $310 million (Pitchbook). Of this funding round, Clutter raised $200 million at a $600 million post-money valuation earlier this year led by SoftBank.
“Portfolios like that of The Storage Fox are extremely rare, and this acquisition signals that Clutter is uniquely positioned to take on and succeed in the self-storage industry,” explained Eliav Dan, the Head of West Coast Real Estate Finance at Barclays — which had acted as Clutter’s exclusive financial advisor. “Clutter competed with multiple self-storage REITs throughout the bidding process to win the deal — a testament to the strength of the company’s management team and its ability to execute on an innovative business model.”
