Luggage storage as a vector for accumulating convenience-based revenue opportunities in the global travel business continues to fuel San Francisco-based Bounce's progress. The startup just packed a suitcase with $19 million in Series B funding and plans to continue generating revenue, which has grown 20x since its $12 million Series A in spring 2022.
Over the next few years, Bounce plans to expand its markets and add verticals.
Co-founder and CEO Cody Candy said the Asia-Pacific region is a key focus, with revenue from the region growing up to four times year over year. He suggested that the consumer behavior the startup is aiming for is more pronounced in markets like Japan, where coin lockers for suitcases and convenience stores offering products other than carbonated drinks are already in place. There is.
Because Bounce knows where its users are looking, it's easy to see where it needs to expand to meet traveler demand. Candee says, “More than 1 million people visit our websites and apps every month. This allows us to create a ranked list of which areas are most in demand.” said.
The startup's big vision continues to be to provide “cloud storage for the physical world,” as Candee puts it. This translates into a mobile app where users (mostly travelers) can find and access services for storing and moving their things.
Its partners can be small businesses with brick-and-mortar stores that have space to store (and in some cases accept) packages, or delivery companies that can move packages on demand. Bounce offers revenue sharing to more than 13,000 partners for their services to app users.
With the new funding from Series B, Bounce expects to reach approximately 30,000 locations by the end of 2026. However, Candee emphasizes that the company focuses on “quality, not quantity.” In this context, it means a nearby base. Places where travelers are likely to store things, such as around mainline railway stations.
hotel bounce
Candee said vertical expansion is also part of the plan, which will be funded by the new funding. He pointed to Bounce for Hotels, for example, which allows hotels to offer luggage storage to guests through Bounce's platform.
Candee said the industry arose organically, as hotels that used to use the company's platform to charge non-guests for luggage storage started charging guests as well. This was after the company noticed it. He said Bounce currently has more than 100 hotels doing this through its platform.
“We thought, wow, this is really interesting,” he told TechCrunch. “I think it was an anomaly a few decades ago when it was common for every hotel stay to include breakfast. And then we broke that down into something else that consumers bought. About luggage storage. may do the same thing.”
Budget travelers may not like the fact that Bounce helps turn free luggage storage into a hotel extra charge, but it's more likely to show up as a negative hotel review. The startup will likely avoid criticism.
Candee also said hotels don't have to charge a fee. You can offer free luggage storage to your guests through the platform. A convenient benefit for hotel guests, he argues, is that they can access a suite of other services through Bounce's platform.
“When you enter the hotel, there is a Bounce kiosk that tells you to leave your luggage here, store your luggage elsewhere in the city, ship your luggage home, and deliver your luggage to the station or wherever you want to go. “Imagine being there,” he said. “And there will probably be a fifth company as well. There are a few companies that have popped up that can take your luggage from your hotel to your plane. We're using integrations to do all of this without having to do our own distribution or anything like that. can be built.”
“This really ties into the whole vision and how hotels can become an access point to the entire Bounce ecosystem,” he added. “With more services, bounce could become ubiquitous more quickly.”
An app that lets you tap on other people's things?
Candee believes that continued changes in the concept of ownership of physical things will help the business continue to recover further in terms of service mix in the future. He admits that he'd like to think about allowing users to rent out their stuff to each other, in a sort of Airbnb style, but that's a “decade-old vision.”
“This is years away, but the infrastructure to get there is all the integration around shipping and delivery. And if we're very successful with our vision, the next generation coming up will be You would think I was crazy to buy everything I needed. […] I use it like it’s just one time,” he said.
“Because the generation after us with the Bounce world is going to be like, 'Oh, if I need to use something, I can just download it from the Bounce cloud.' I rent it, I access it.’ That’s the big, crazy vision of where we’re going. But further strengthening the core of shipping and delivery and all of these storage points is the basis of that. ”
This is fundamental to the startup's efforts and funding to expand its partner network by adding more locations near where travelers are likely to store and move their luggage. It explains why parts are still targeted.
Bounce's network of physical location partners currently connects approximately 4,000 cities in 100 countries. Since launching the app in 2019, the company says its service has been used to store around 6 million bags.
Logistically, Candee believes the travel direction also favors Bounce's larger mission. For example, he noted that DoorDash Drive didn't exist when he launched his startup. A shipping company's white label API makes its logistics technology and driver network available to others.
“I think it's going to get easier and easier to do these things,” he said. “The larger our core business becomes, the easier it is to establish global and local partnerships for delivery, integration, and any other type of partnership we desire.”
Bounce's Series B was led by Sapphire Sport, with participation from existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst, as well as new investors including 20VC Growth, FJ Labs, Shilling, and Thayer Ventures.
Sapphire Sports partner David Hartwig and principal Rico Mallozzi said in a joint statement: “This new funding will help Bounce expand into new markets and expand its energy storage business in hotels and venues. I look forward to seeing how it will be promoted.”
“We are impressed with the company's ability to scale its storage network quickly and efficiently and believe it is just beginning to tap into its potential to address diverse storage needs,” they added. I did.