Last week, we were honored to welcome Laurens Vanryckeghem as Investment Manager to the team!
Laurens brings a wealth of experience from the PropTech and real estate space. He previously initiated the real estate practice within KPMG Belgium and as the Real Estate Sector Lead, he consequently specialized in real estate technologies and innovation.
Welcome on board Laurens !!!
YouStock announces a new funding round of €3.7 million led by AMAVI Capital, a fund specialising in European PropTech, Région Sud Investissement and the Business Angel Jean-Luc Haddad, founder and CEO of Grospiron International. Founded in 2015 in Monaco, YouStock, led by Alexis Bouresche (CEO) and Pierre Charvet (COO), aims to meet the need to optimise space. Their flexible and affordable solution makes the storage of personal items more democratic.
Customised storage, without lifting a finger
YouStock was born out of a simple observation: the self-storage market has many issues, including inadequate pricing, but also logistical constraints. YouStock resolves them with a solution based on two key principles:
Conquering the digitalisation of self-storage on a European scale
This capital raising is happening at a crucial time for YouStock’s development. Despite the context of last year, YouStock achieved impressive growth and now has over 1200 active customers, representing a 90% increase compared to 2020. The success of its launch in Paris during the lockdown also confirmed the relevance of its strategy. The inflation of the price per square metre in cities has considerably reduced habitable floor area, obliging many people to find new solutions for storing their personal belongings.
The startup wants to take advantage of this new funding round to speed up its development, with the integration of automation processes for delivery and storage. YouStock is also aiming for national and international expansion, for example by opening a branch in Lyon in early 2022 as well as a location in a European capital. These ambitious projects are in line with the objective of its founders: becoming the European leader in urban self-storage within 4 years.
‘Our success in Paris, Monaco and Nice confirms the relevance of a service like YouStock in big cities. By offering city dwellers the fairest, simplest, and most affordable model, we aspire to quickly become a key player. This raising of capital offers a real opportunity for us to gain a foothold throughout France over the next few months.’ Alexis Bouresche, CEO YouStock
‘Ever since its launch, we’ve been impressed by the digital platform developed by the YouStock team, as well as the growth they’ve generated. Supporting YouStock in their ambitions to grow in France and in Europe is perfectly in line with the PropTech focus of our investment strategy. YouStock revolutionises the way you can manage your belongings on demand, short or longer term, and at a very competitive rate. All on an intuitive digital platform.’ Frederic Van den Weghe, Managing Partner AMAVI Capital
About YouStock
In order to make up for the lack of services offered by self-storage and furniture storage brands, two old friends, Alexis Bouresche and Jacopo Marzocco, decided to focus on the concept of ‘storage on demand’. YouStock was founded in 2015. It experienced rapid growth, allowing it to raise capital for the first time in 2017. Pierre Charvet joined the company in the same year as Associate COO, in order to structure the geographical and strategic development of the company. Today, YouStock operates on the Côte-d’Azur, in Monaco, Paris and the greater Paris region. Tomorrow, Europe!
About AMAVI Capital
AMAVI Capital is one of the first PropTech investors and one of the rare investors to focus solely on this segment in Europe. AMAVI is a fully independent investment vehicle with a European network, created to support the growth of the leading and most promising businesses in the PropTech sector. The main defining feature of AMAVI Capital is its in-depth knowledge of the real-estate sector.
About Région Sud Investissement:
Région Sud Investissement is the regional investment company created in 2010 by the Région Sud (South Region of France) to support the emergence and development of growth companies in the region. Région Sud Investissement, with a capital of €134 million, receives 42% of its funding from the European Union through the ERDF fund.
