Friday, June 28, 2013

STOREFRONT FOR POP-UP SHOP MARKETPLACE


storefront-full-circleThe short-term commercial rentals marketplace Storefront announced yesterday that it has raised $1.6M in seed funding from  Mohr Davidow VenturesGreat Oaks Venture Capital500 StartupsBoxGroup and Sand Hill Angels. Storefront launched out of startup accelerator Angelpad in San Francisco last fall and has already helped 100 pop-ups for brands and listed over 3M square feet in retail space. The startup plans to use the funding for expansion (check out their Storefront listings in NYC) and additional hires to complement its 6-person team.
While the long-term popularity of pop-up shops might raise an eyebrow, Storefront’s market is built on top of the 10% vacancy rate for commercial spaces. Rather than charging broker fees for the space, Storefront collects referral fees from associated purchases and services related to setting up the space, such as furniture, staff and insurance. With a timely market entry, Storefront hopes to make it just as easy to open a shop offline as it now is to open one online.

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