2022年2月24日

搬家和倉儲初創企業正在進行一些整合:市場上曾經的競爭對手雜波(Clutter)和MakeSpace將合並為一家公司，以雜波品牌運營，服務於美國約6500個城鎮，加起來約占美國總人口的60%，在加拿大也有業務，包括按需搬家、倉儲、自助倉儲和處置等服務。該交易的財務條款尚未披露，Clutter創始人兼首席執行官Art Mir在接受采訪時告訴我，但他證實，該公司合並後每年將獲得近2億美元的收入，今年將實現收支平衡，並計劃在2023年上市。Mir將繼續擔任他的職位，並將擔任合並後業務的首席執行官，而MakeSpace的首席執行官拉胡爾·甘地將成為總裁。Mir表示，在此之前，合並後擴大的雜波公司沒有任何籌集更多資金的計劃。目前尚不清楚合並後的公司將有多少員工。淩亂公司有大約1000名員工，Mir表示，他們向部分但不是全部的MakeSpace員工發出了加入合並後公司的邀請。這兩家公司的運營模式都是雇傭所有的送貨司機，而不是零工。米爾說:“這是一種天生適合我們的文化。我已經證實，在2019年軟銀領投的2億美元融資中，Clutter的估值約為5.8億美元。MakeSpace上一次融資是在2021年，當時疫情還在持續，融資5500萬美元，投資者包括戰略支持者IronSource等多家公司。 MakeSpace has never disclosed its valuation. Both companies have grown since then. Mir said that the deal caps off a long-held ambition of his to make Clutter a consolidator in the space and he’d been eyeing up MakeSpace for a while now. “I’ve always been a big fan of building relationships and have been working on the relationship with MakeSpace for years now,” he said in an interview. He said he’d periodically reached out “once or twice a year” before the latter company finally bit. Indeed, I heard about this deal going down several months ago, although both companies declined to comment on the situation at the time. The deal underscores a couple of bring trends that are moving the market, one that is estimated at $38 billion for storage alone annually. One of these is the effects of the pandemic. Covid-19 has been a period of social distancing and staying put, but not for everyone: a lot of us took the moment to pause, think about how and where we are living, and in many cases take action by relocating, downsizing or simply rethinking our living spaces. All of that has had a big impact on companies like Clutter and MakeSpace, both of which saw business continue to grow in the last two years. Clutter, Mir told me, was designated an essential service and continued all operations as normal, while MakeSpace’s Gandhi told me last year that it was outpacing its growth forecasts for the period by 30%. The other is economy of scale. As with any logistics-based business — the wider category of e-commerce being one prime other example — ultimately the most successful players are those that have grown to a big enough size that they are maximizing their network of operations with as many customers and orders as possible for the best margins on that model. That is very much the case here, too. Clutter, Mir told me, was profitable in its bigger markets but not everywhere; this merger will give it, and MakeSpace, the ability to aim for positive unit economics and better margins in more places. And, it will also cut out one more competitor in places where they overlapped, meaning less money to spend on marketing and promotions. This is not Clutter’s first acquisition and consolidation move. It acquired The Storage Fox in 2019 for $152 million also as part of that strategy. It also bought assets from failed storage startup Omni in the same year, and has also picked up assets from Handy, Livible, Shed, and Callbox. MakeSpace has also been doing some consolidating, acquiring Stashable from Iron Mountain when it raised its Series D led by the business storage giant. “The moving and storage industries are fragmented, and a really frustrating experience for a lot of customers. There is clear demand for a brand that consumers know they can trust nationwide, and the combination of MakeSpace and Clutter will put the company in an excellent position to offer convenient storage and moving services nationwide, with plenty of room to grow,” said Gandhi in a statement.