Saltbox, a company that provides co-working and warehousing space for up-and-coming e-commerce businesses, said it is working with Fundrise, a real estate investment firm, to expand nationally.
Saltbox raised $10.6 million in a Series A round last year, and we spoke to the company's CEO about the opening of its first facility in Atlanta in two months. There was a bigger space in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Fundrise is putting $128 million of equity into the effort, which is part of its larger strategy to invest in well-located, last-mile logistics industrial real estate.
Fundrise will acquire warehouses ranging in size from 50,000 to 150,000 square feet to house the new Saltbox locations. The first two locations will be in Alexandria, Virginia and Atlanta. Saltbox now has a location in Phoenix.
The partnership with Fundrise is about democratizing access to real estate for retail investors.
Saltbox's facilities have over $200 billion worth of e- commerce gross merchandise volume attributed to them, and he expects it to grow to $500 billion in the next eight years.
Though those companies are given thousands of tools to help grow their business, such asshopify, Stripe and Facebook, the aspect of e- commerce logistics is hard and messy, with most infrastructure not built for small businesses. Most are stuck fulfilling orders from the basement, garage, and storage spaces when what they really need is a warehouse.
At the crux of our strategy is human-centered logistics, and that's what we bring together with an end-to-end solution.
Saltbox plans to have 15 locations by the end of the year.
Fundrise liked the approach Saltbox was taking to open up access to real estate, according to the COO of the company. The company is bullish on industrial and invests in residential apartments.
The real estate we are looking at is where there is a lot of growth and activity. This was a unique way that we brought partnership together.
Saltbox raises $10.6M to help booming e-commerce stores store their goods
All Rights Reserved © 2024
