Moroccan startup Popaddress has launched a marketplace for the rental of short-term retail spaces, allowing brands, designers and business people to rent pop-up stores, showrooms or other spaces for periods as small as one day.
Popaddress went live in December of last year, with the aim of democratising access to commercial real estate by making renting retail space as simple as Airbnb.
Founder Lina Alami told Disrupt Africa the platform already has 100 spaces available for rental, and aims to have 500 listed by the end of the year.
“Today, if you need to find a store ,the only option you have is a long-term contract. It’s binding, expensive, and long,” she said. “And yet you have many empty stores. There is clearly a mismatch and our solution is to connect empty stores with people and brands.”
The bootstrapped startup is currently undergoing incubation at NUMA Casablanca, and targeting expansion to other African markets in the future. Alami said it had a commission-based business model.
