After recently debuting in New York City, on-demand storage startup Clutter has just raised $9 million from venture capital firm Sequoia.
The new round of founding brings Clutter’s total funding to $12.3 million, which it will use to expand its sales and marketing efforts, as well as to accelerate product development. The company also plans to use the funding to expand into additional cities and regions in the United States.
Cash to expand
“Sequoia’s support allows us to continue national expansion while growing our existing markets: Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco,” said Brian Thomas, Clutter’s CEO and cofounder (pictured above on right with cofounder and CMO Ari Mir on the left).
So far this year, the Culver City, CA-based company has expanded into New York, New Jersey, San Francisco and Orange County.
Sequoia has backed companies such as Zappos, Airbnb, PayPal, Electronic Arts and many more.
Clutter picks up and drops off items on demand with its fleet of vans and trucks.
Ripe for disruption
“Self-storage is a large and fragmented market suffering from a poor user experience,” said Omar Hamoui, partner at Sequoia and founder of AdMob.
“Clutter’s focus on addressing the real consumer pain point while solving some fairly complex technical problems has positioned them for explosive growth,” Hamoui said.
Clutter, founded in 2013, is one of several startups looking to conquer the fledgling “valet storage” market. While there are variations in terms of pricing models and operations, valet storage companies like Clutter pickup customers’ belongings, store them at a warehouse, and redeliver the belongings upon request.
