Storefront (company)

History

Storefront is an online marketplace for pop-up retail space. The company was originally founded in the fall of 2012 by CEO Erik Eliason and COO Tristan Pollock, through the AngelPad start-up accelerator. The firm opened its first pop-up retail space in December 2012. Over its first six months Storefront helped to open one hundred pop-ups, and included around three million square feet of retail space by June 2013. Storefront received $1.6 million in funding in 2013 and included spaces in both San Francisco and New York City, with initial New York listings in Queens, Manhattan, and Brooklyn.

Storefront was acquired in 2016 by Pop-up Immo, a French online retail marketplace and concierge service for short-term retail space. Pop-up Immo was created by two French founders working on Wall Street, Mohammed Haouache and Adrien Kerbrat. Storefront was a part of Techstars NYC landing zone program in 2016. The new combined organization took the name Storefront. Headquartered in New York City, the current company has offices in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Hong Kong and features spaces from three continents.

Product

Storefront's listings largely represent short-term rentals in temporary vacancies within shopping complexes and other commercial establishments. Rentals often average from three to four weeks, providing a temporary brick and mortar space in the San Francisco/Oakland, or New York City area. Rentals can also be shorter than a week. The locations also include spaces in the New York City subway system. These spaces are offered through a partnership between the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Storefront. Storefront's client base includes both ecommerce companies looking for temporary physical sales locations as well as offline firms like National Geographic, restaurants, and companies test-releasing future products.

In April 2014 Storefront exceeded the one thousand openings mark, facilitating $30 million in sales.