MakeSpace physical storage startup raises $10.1 million in funding

NY-based MakeSpace, the Dropbox for physical objects, has today closed an $8 million Series A funding round led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from Founders Fund, OATV, and follow-ons from existing investors Lowercase Capital, High Peaks Venture Partners and Collaborative Fund. This round brings the company’s total funding to $10.1 million. MakeSpace started out last year with the goal to bring the same organization and convenience of cloud storage services, like Dropbox and Google Drive, to the physical objects in your home.

MakeSpace thinks physical storage should work more like Dropbox. The New York startup provides a substantially better user experience than traditional self-storage offerings, argues CEO Sam Rosen. The company will drop off bins for your stuff, come back later to pick up those packed bins, and use birds-eye photography to create a visual catalog of all the stuff that’s in its storage facility. If you want your stuff back, it’ll get it back to your doorstep within 48 hours. That’s already pretty compelling when your primary competitors are stodgy self-storage companies like Manhattan Mini-Storage, but it’s looking to further improve the experience with Dropbox- and Uber-inspired features. MakeSpace is working on an iPhone app that will enable customers to track delivery vans’ location in real time, like they can with Uber or Lyft drivers, Rosen told VentureBeat. Through the app, customers will also be able to take photos and attach them to their bin profiles, so folks have more than a top-down shot to determine what’s in each bin.