Saltbox, a warehousing space provider for small and medium-sized digital commerce companies, has expanded to Seattle.
Saltbox offers “co-warehousing” space where online retailers that store physical goods can operate their business. In some ways it’s a mix of WeWork and Public Storage, offering both a place to keep inventory but also run operations.
The Seattle location, located in the SoDo neighborhood, is more than 31,000 square feet with 47 warehouse suites. Saltbox has existing buildings in Atlanta and Dallas.
Members can access the space on a month-to-month basis. Pricing at the Seattle location (4786 1st Ave) starts at $600 per month.
Beyond just storage, Saltbox offers private office spaces, logistics services, and an “elastic workforce,” option, which lets users hire Saltbox specialists for fulfillment, receiving and sorting and more.
The company is riding tailwinds from the recent e-commerce boom amid the pandemic. U.S. e-commerce sales were up 39% in Q1 of this year. Meanwhile, online sales as a percentage of total retail continues to grow, now making up 19.5% of overall sales, up from 15.9% last year, DigitalCommerce360 reported.
Founded in 2019, Saltbox uses a similar pay-as-you-go warehousing model to Flexe, a Seattle startup that offers larger retailers warehouse space on demand.
Tyler Scriven, co-founder and CEO of Saltbox, was previously managing director for Techstars Atlanta and was chief of staff to the president at Palantir from 2009 to 2016. The company’s other co-founders include Paul D’Arrigo, who also founded Ally Commerce and was previously chief operating officer of Spend Management Experts; and Maxwell Bonnie, who previously worked in operations for FullStory.
Seattle will be its first West Coast location, and Saltbox plans to expand to Denver and Los Angeles this year, following a $10.6 million Series A funding round raised in April. Total funding to date is $16 million. The company employs 35 people.
from GeekWire https://www.geekwire.com/2021/co-warehousing-startup-saltbox-opens-facility-seattle-third-nationwide/