Self-Storage Marketplace Neighbor.com Grabs $53 Million in Venture Funding

Got stuff? Neighbor.com is betting you do — as are its investors, who have just ponied up $53 million more in venture funding. The company said it will use the cash to build up its marketplace, which connects owners of underused property to customers looking to rent storage space.

Neighbor’s pitch is that it “benefits renters by providing safer, more accessible storage for half the price of a traditional self-storage unit, while giving hosts the opportunity to earn thousands of dollars per year from their unused space.”

In a press release, Utah-based Neighbor said the firms in the latest venture round include “the largest fund focused on global real estate” and technology, Fifth Wall. The round also includes investments from previous investor Andreessen Horowitz, along with DoorDash CEO Tony Xu, StockX CEO Scott Cutler, former Uber CEO Ryan Graves and Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson.

The company said that “as a relative newcomer to the $40B self-storage industry, Neighbor is shaking up this antiquated and dusty sector. … Without (adding) any new construction or existing infrastructure, Neighbor is quickly adding new square footage to the market.”

“Neighbor will use this sizable investment to rapidly expand its nationwide network of hosts and renters,” said Joseph Woodbury, CEO and co-founder of Neighbor.

“Our firm ardently pursued the opportunity to invest in a transformative PropTech business like Neighbor,” said Dan Wenhold, partner at Fifth Wall. He said that self-storage has been “the fastest-growing segment of the commercial real estate industry for four decades running.”

According to the release, “Fifth Wall has facilitated opportunities for Neighbor to partner with (some) of the world’s largest owners and operators of real estate from 15 countries.” Neighbor said that its commercial real estate footprint grew by 10 times last year.

Woodbury told PYMNTS in an interview that the company aims to bring digital and mobile efficiencies to the self-storage industry, where he said that “demand is outstripping supply.”