O’Reilly Alphatech, the corporate venturing subsidiary of O’Reilly Media, has participated in a $8m series A round of funding for US-based physical storage solutions company MakeSpace.
The round was led by venture capital firm Upfront Ventures and also featured existing investors Founder Fund, Lowercase Capital, High Peaks Venture Partners and Collaborative Fund.
MakeSpace offers subscribers a service revolving around on-demand storage bins, physically mirroring the principle of cloud-based storage services.
The new funds will be used for recruitment, with the aim of adding 15 more personnel to their existing team of 20. Currently operating in New York only, the company also hopes to expand before the end of 2014.
“We look very different from a traditional e-commerce company. For us, the transaction velocity is significantly lower than a FreshDirect or an Uber, where people need [those services] all the time,” MakeSpace CEO Sam Rosen said.
“When we have a big hub between multiple cities, we look a lot more like an Amazon than a real estate play.”
The funding brings the total raised by MakeSpace, which was founded in 2013, to $10.1m. The company received $2.1m in seed funding in September 2013 from High Peaks, Lowercase, Upfront, Collaborative Fund, Slow Ventures and seed investors including Gary Vaynerchuk.