Appear Here, a marketplace for retail space aiding and abetting the fashionable craze of ‘pop-up’ shops, has raised a significant $7.5 million of new funding, in a round led by Balderton Capital. Existing investors MMC, Forward and Meyer Bergman also took part in the round, which follows on from a £1m fundraising in November 2013.
The investment will be spent on customer service, a concierge service and developing online contracts and payments.
In the last 18 months Appear Here says it has transacted over 500 short-term lets and has over 600 properties available to hire in the UK. Some 10,000 brands now regularly search its database for shops.
It’s now signed eight out of the UK’s ten biggest retail landlords including British Land, Land Securities, Hammerson and has a deal with TfL to market space in Underground stations.
The company was founded in 2012 by 22-year-old Ross Bailey – who started with his own pop-up shop on Carnaby Street, London selling T-shirts.