Popular luggage storage app Stasher has secured another $2.5 million in financing thanks to Venture Friends and other investors, including former hotels.com president Johan Svanstrom.
Stasher, a luggage “sharing economy solution” debuting in 2015, utilizes a marketplace and app that coordinates travelers, convention goers and tourists with area businesses such as shops and hotels that can temporarily store their luggage.
Each Stasher booking includes insurance for the temporarily stored items, which are covered for damages such as loss and theft for up to £1,000.
Businesses partnering with Stasher and holding the customer’s luggage receive approximately 50% of the storage fee. Stasher’s business strategy is that traditional brick and mortar companies will want the additional revenue stream coming from consumers engaging the new “shared economy.”
Stasher wants its customers not to worry about carrying around any luggage on their various trips, whether they’re business or pleasure. “If you’ve ever been forced out of your Airbnb at 10am, you may be familiar with the issue,” Stasher co-founder Anthony Collias noted to an interviewer.
Initially only in 20 cities, Stasher now has a much stronger business network spread throughout 250 separate cities. The Stasher app is currently available in the United States and Australia.
Companies such as Klook, Sonder, Marriott and Hotels.com have partnered with Stasher, as well as Premier Inn, Expedia, Holiday Express, OYO and Accor.
Stasher’s competitor StoreMe’s CEO Peter Korbel noted to PYMNTS in a recent interview that businesses such as Stasher and StoreMe thrive in and around so-called “smart cities” that allow scooter rentals to thrive. Scooters are a “nice indicator” there’s a good local market for the luggage platform, he said.
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