Cubby Secures $63M Series A from Goldman Sachs to Digitize Self-Storage Operations

The self-storage industry, a $39 billion market in the U.S. alone, has long operated on paper ledgers, manual gate access, and phone-based customer service. Cubby is betting that a unified software platform can modernize this fragmented sector, and Goldman Sachs Alternatives is placing a significant wager on that thesis.

Cubby announced a $63 million Series A funding round led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. The investment values the company in the hundreds of millions, though the exact valuation was not disclosed. The round includes participation from existing investors, bringing Cubby's total funding to over $80 million since its founding in 2020.

The company's software provides a suite of tools for self-storage operators, including online rental and payment processing, automated gate access control, inventory management, and customer relationship management (CRM). The platform is designed to replace a patchwork of legacy systems and manual processes that dominate the industry, which is characterized by a high number of small, independent operators.

The self-storage market is highly fragmented, with the top four publicly traded companies—Public Storage, Extra Space Storage, U-Haul, and Life Storage—controlling only about 30% of the total U.S. market share. The remaining 70% consists of thousands of independent and small-chain operators, many of whom still rely on basic software or even spreadsheets to manage their properties. This fragmentation presents a significant opportunity for a vertically integrated software provider.

Cubby's business model is a classic SaaS subscription, with pricing typically based on the number of units managed. The company claims to have processed over $1 billion in payments for its customers and serves thousands of facilities across the United States. The new capital will be used to accelerate product development, expand its sales and marketing teams, and potentially pursue strategic acquisitions of smaller, complementary technologies.

The investment from Goldman Sachs Alternatives, a division of the global investment bank, signals a maturation of the vertical SaaS landscape. While venture capital has long funded software for industries like construction, healthcare, and agriculture, the self-storage sector has been slower to digitize. Goldman's involvement suggests that the market has reached a scale and maturity that attracts institutional, growth-stage capital.

For the self-storage industry, Cubby's growth reflects a broader shift toward operational efficiency and enhanced customer experience. Operators using integrated software can automate revenue collection, reduce delinquency rates, and offer modern conveniences like contactless move-ins and digital access codes. This is increasingly important as consumer expectations, shaped by e-commerce and on-demand services, extend to even the most traditional sectors.

The funding round also underscores the competitive dynamics in vertical SaaS. Cubby competes with other players like StoreEdge, Smarking, and SiteLink, though each often focuses on different segments of the market. The fresh capital gives Cubby a war chest to differentiate through product innovation and aggressive market penetration, potentially consolidating the fragmented software landscape itself.

From a strategic perspective, this investment is a bet on the digitization of the physical world. While much of tech funding flows to digital-native businesses, Cubby represents a bridge between software and tangible, asset-heavy industries. The success of such platforms often hinges on their ability to deeply understand the unique workflows and pain points of their target users—something that requires significant domain expertise and long-term commitment.

The Series A round for Cubby is one of the largest recent funding events for a vertical SaaS company focused on a traditionally analog industry. It follows a pattern seen in other sectors, such as Toast for restaurants or ServiceTitan for home services, where a comprehensive software platform can become the central nervous system for a business. For Goldman Sachs, this represents a strategic investment in a company poised to become the category leader in a large, underserved market.

As Cubby deploys its new capital, the key metrics to watch will be its customer acquisition cost, net revenue retention, and ability to expand its platform's functionality to become indispensable to its users. The self-storage industry's continued growth, driven by urbanization, e-commerce returns, and downsizing trends, provides a favorable tailwind. However, execution will be critical in a market where operators are often cost-conscious and resistant to change.

The $63 million raise positions Cubby to potentially lead the consolidation of the self-storage software market and accelerate the industry's digital transformation. For investors, it represents a calculated bet on a company that is not just selling software, but fundamentally changing how a multi-billion dollar industry operates.