Australian startup Spacer just raised $2.7 million then acquired a rival

Storage startup Spacer has secured a $2.7 million series A capital raising round and acquired parking space rival Parkhound.

Parkhound’s founders had last year rejected three investment offers on the Ten Network’s Shark Tank television show. This time they agreed to terms with Spacer for an undisclosed amount.

The platform, with 55,000 members and 10,000 parking locations around Australia, racked up more than 5 million hours of parking space bookings this year, making more than $5 million for its landlords.

Spacer founder and chief Michael Rosenbaum said the acquisition was a deliberate move to become a leader in renting out space, regardless of what it was used for.

“We have been following the company for some time,” he said.

“Parkhound has built a solid foundation to successfully trade one of the biggest commodities — city parking. This complements Spacer’s business model that already includes parking to expand our offering and become the market leader.”

The acquisition sees all intellectual property — including technology and customers – handed over to Spacer, which now has more than 20,000 landlords offering storage, parking and warehouse space.

“We will continue to work with Spacer for a seamless handover and look forward to seeing the marketplace continue to grow,” said Parkhound co-founder Rob Crocitti.

Commercial relationships are proving to be fruitful for Spacer, through supply agreements with businesses like car park operators and commercial storage providers wanting to fill up spare capacity.

Rosenbaum, a former Deals Direct chief executive, and co-founder Roland Tam started Spacer in October 2015. The latest $2.7 million brings the total raised for the business to $5 million.

The company did not disclose the investors involved in its latest capital raising round.

In March, Spacer acquired Californian competitor Roost in order to start an expansion into the lucrative US market. Rosenbaum has also been active in the local startup community, opening Australia’s first gig economy accelerator in April along with three other entrepreneurs.

Tony Yoo - Business insider Australia - 10 Oct 2017