Bounce Secures $19 Million Series B to Revolutionize Global Luggage Storage and Unlock New Revenue Streams

San Francisco, CA – November 26, 2024 – Bounce, the innovative San Francisco-based company redefining convenience in the global travel industry through its expansive luggage storage network, has successfully closed a $19 million Series B funding round. This significant investment, led by Sapphire Sport with substantial participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst, alongside new backers including 20VC Growth, FJ Labs, Shilling, and Thayer Ventures, underscores the immense potential of Bounce’s vision to become the ubiquitous “cloud storage for the physical world.” The fresh capital infusion is earmarked for aggressive market expansion, particularly in the burgeoning Asia-Pacific region, and the strategic development of new service verticals, building upon an already impressive growth trajectory that has seen revenue skyrocket by 20 times since its $12 million Series A raise in spring 2022.

At its core, Bounce operates a sophisticated platform that seamlessly connects travelers with a vast network of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) possessing underutilized physical space. These partners, ranging from local shops and cafes to hotels and transit hubs, offer secure storage for luggage and, increasingly, package acceptance services. The company’s mobile application serves as the central nervous system, empowering users to effortlessly locate, book, and access these storage solutions. This symbiotic relationship allows Bounce to leverage the existing infrastructure of its 13,000+ partners, providing them with a valuable revenue share stream for servicing the platform’s growing user base. The company’s ambitious roadmap includes a substantial increase in its physical footprint, with a target of reaching approximately 30,000 partner locations by the end of 2026. However, co-founder and CEO Cody Candee emphasizes a strategic focus on "quality, not quantity," prioritizing locations in proximity to high-demand traveler hubs such as major train stations and airports to ensure maximum convenience and accessibility.

The Asia-Pacific region has emerged as a critical growth engine for Bounce, with revenue from this area experiencing an astonishing year-over-year increase of up to four times. Candee attributes this surge to deeply ingrained consumer behaviors that align perfectly with Bounce’s service model. Markets like Japan, he notes, already boast a well-established culture of readily available coin lockers for luggage and ubiquitous convenience stores, often referred to as "konbini," which offer an array of services far beyond basic retail. This cultural precedent has significantly accelerated user adoption and partner integration in these regions, validating Bounce’s strategic focus. The company’s ability to pinpoint expansion opportunities is data-driven and remarkably precise. With over a million individuals visiting its website or app monthly, Bounce leverages this rich user data to identify and prioritize areas with the highest unmet demand for its services, creating a dynamic and responsive expansion strategy.

The overarching vision for Bounce, as articulated by Candee, is to transcend the traditional definition of luggage storage and evolve into a comprehensive service provider for physical goods in transit. This ambitious goal translates into an ecosystem where travelers can not only store their belongings but also have them moved, shipped, or delivered on demand. The company’s existing partnerships with delivery firms are a crucial component of this strategy, enabling efficient and flexible logistics solutions. As Bounce scales its core storage network, the company anticipates that the increasing sophistication and accessibility of third-party logistics APIs, such as DoorDash Drive, will further streamline its operations and facilitate seamless integration with a wider array of delivery partners. This collaborative approach to logistics is key to realizing the vision of a truly integrated physical world storage solution.

A significant area of strategic development, fueled by the new funding, is the expansion into new service verticals. "Bounce for Hotels" exemplifies this initiative. This innovative offering empowers hotels to extend luggage storage services to their own guests through the Bounce platform. The genesis of this vertical was organic; Bounce observed that hotels already utilizing its platform for non-guest storage began to offer the service to their in-house clientele. Currently, over 100 hotels are leveraging Bounce’s infrastructure to provide this amenity. Candee draws a parallel to the evolution of hotel services, likening the potential commoditization of luggage storage to the historical shift of breakfast from an included amenity to a separately purchased service. While this might represent an additional cost for budget-conscious travelers, it also offers significant convenience and access to a broader suite of services through the Bounce ecosystem. Imagine a hotel guest being able to store their bags, have them shipped home, or even have them delivered to a train station – all facilitated by a single, integrated platform. Furthermore, Bounce is exploring integrations with companies that offer in-room flight check-in services, further solidifying its position as a central hub for travel-related conveniences.

Looking further into the future, Candee envisions a paradigm shift in how society interacts with physical possessions, a shift that Bounce is poised to facilitate. The company’s long-term "multi-decade vision" includes enabling peer-to-peer rentals of physical items, akin to an "Airbnb for things." This aspirational goal hinges on the robust infrastructure of shipping and delivery services that Bounce is actively building. The underlying principle is to move away from a culture of ownership and toward a model of access and utilization. Candee posits that future generations, integrated into a "Bounce world," will view the necessity of purchasing items for single-use as archaic, opting instead to "download," rent, or access what they need through the Bounce platform. This ambitious vision, while years away, is being meticulously constructed on the foundation of its current efforts in expanding its partner network and refining its core storage and logistics capabilities.

The company’s current operational footprint is substantial. Bounce’s network of physical location partners spans approximately 4,000 cities across 100 countries. Since its app launch in 2019, the service has facilitated the storage of an estimated 6 million bags, a testament to the growing demand for its solutions. The evolving landscape of logistics further bolsters Bounce’s strategic advantage. Candee recalls a time when on-demand delivery services were nascent, highlighting the significant advancements in white-label APIs and logistics networks that now make complex delivery operations more feasible and cost-effective. As Bounce solidifies its core business, it anticipates an increasing ease in securing global and local partnerships for delivery, integration, and a multitude of other synergistic collaborations.

The successful Series B funding round injects crucial capital to accelerate Bounce’s growth trajectory. David Hartwig, partner, and Rico Mallozzi, principal, at Sapphire Sport, expressed their excitement in a joint statement: “We’re excited to see how this new capital will fuel Bounce’s growth into new markets and power storage operations at hotels and venues. We’ve been impressed by their ability to scale their storage network with speed and efficiency, and believe they’ve only begun to tap into the potential of serving diverse storage needs.” This sentiment is echoed by the continued support of existing investors and the confidence of new entrants into Bounce’s cap table, signaling strong market validation for the company’s innovative approach to solving a pervasive traveler pain point and its ambitious vision for the future of physical asset management. The upcoming TechCrunch event in San Francisco from October 13-15, 2026, will likely serve as a platform for Bounce to further articulate its progress and future strategic initiatives to a broader industry audience.