Bag-storage service LuggageHero has crowd-sourced €408,841 in funding, closing its campaign at more than 24% its initial target.
The Copenhagen-based startup - one of PhocusWire’s Hot 25 Startups for 2019 - reached its goal of raising €329,000 within the first 48 hours of opening privately to current investors via the Seedrs platform.
Of the 652 investors participating in the round, more than 25% were returning beneficial owners from LuggageHero’s first Seedrs campaign in 2019; venture capital firm Nordic Eye, which led the €1.5 million funding round, also participated.
“I’ll be the first to admit that initially I wasn’t sure how it would go,” LuggageHero co-founder and CEO Jannik Lawaetz says of launching the campaign during the coronavirus pandemic.
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“Like most travel-related companies, our business is at a near standstill. But as soon as I started putting out feelers, people reacted very positively.”
LuggageHero, which launched in 2016 as a service for travelers to book storage space by the hour, says it operates out of more than 1,000 locations in 40 cities across North America and Europe.
Lawaetz says that, due to COVID-19, he expects some of those locations to permanently close, though new partners wanting extra revenue will sign on in their wake.
Last August, the company acquired its competitor in the United States, Knock Knock City, for an undisclosed sum.
With the new funding, LuggageHero says it will continue to expand geographically and develop related new services.