store2be

store2be operated as an online booking platform for temporary promotional, pop-up, and event spaces, targeting the live marketing and retail sectors. The company was founded in 2015 by a team that balanced business and technology expertise: Dr. Marlon Braumann and Sven Wissebach, both alumni of WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, along with Emil Kabisch and Peter Gundel, graduates of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Braumann, with a Ph.D. in salesforce management, led the sales strategy, while Kabisch acted as Chief Product Officer. The venture originated from the CyberLab incubator in Karlsruhe before relocating its headquarters to Berlin in the summer of 2016.

The company's core offering was a SaaS-enabled online marketplace that connected brands and agencies with space owners, such as shopping centers, retailers, airports, and cinemas. This platform was designed to streamline the process of renting temporary spaces for live communication events, which encompass direct dialogues with customers through offline promotions and sales campaigns. For brands, particularly online companies like Amorelie and Glossybox seeking to build an offline presence, store2be offered a data-driven method to engage with specific target audiences and generate brand awareness. For space owners, the platform provided a "Space Manager" software solution to manage and market their available locations, handling administrative tasks like rental contracts. A key differentiator was its "Event Analytics" technology, a WiFi-based system that measured campaign performance by anonymously tracking metrics like foot traffic, customer interactions, and dwell times, thus bringing a level of measurability to offline marketing efforts.

store2be's business model focused on facilitating transactions between brands seeking temporary retail space and property owners looking to monetize vacant areas. The company's revenue was likely generated through commission or transaction fees on these bookings. The platform catered to both B2B and B2C companies, aiming to make offline marketing as scalable and measurable as its online counterpart. The company successfully raised capital over several funding rounds, securing a high six-figure sum in its first round in July 2016 from investors including Project A, Global Founders Capital, and Perikles Ventures. By early 2020, it had raised a total of approximately 7 million euros from backers such as IBB Ventures, SIGNA, and Atlantic Ventures. Despite its growth and securing a seven-figure funding round in early 2020, store2be ceased operations in September 2020. The founders attributed this decision to the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the live marketing and retail markets, which eliminated the positive business outlook for the company. The company underwent liquidation in January 2021.

Keywords: live marketing, promotional space booking, pop-up shop platform, temporary retail space, event space marketplace, offline marketing analytics, brand activation, experiential marketing, retail-as-a-service, shopping center promotions, data-driven marketing, space-as-a-service, commercial space rental, event analytics, customer engagement metrics, store-in-store, short-term retail, promotions management software, Marlon Braumann, Emil Kabisch