What Appear Here does

Appear Here is a two-sided online marketplace for short-term and pop-up retail space, founded in 2013 by Ross Bailey and headquartered in London. The platform connects landlords with vacant or underutilized retail properties to brands, entrepreneurs, and creatives seeking flexible physical retail space for durations ranging from days to months. It operates across four primary cities (London, Paris, New York, Amsterdam) with regional offices in each, and serves a customer base spanning individual designers (e.g., Anna Walker London, 26 Grains) and global enterprises (Apple, Coca-Cola, Selfridges, Topshop, BrewDog, Spotify). Notable case studies include Kanye West's Life of Pablo pop-up campaign across 21 cities, which reportedly sold over $1m in merchandise at launch events.

The platform's core technology is a cloud-based marketplace hosted on AWS with payment processing via Stripe and image optimization via Imgix. It offers standardized legal agreements, secure SSL-encrypted transactions, integrated chat between tenants and landlords, landlord dashboards, and a curated premium inventory (Plus Collection) comprising 90% exclusive spaces. Supporting products include Appear Here Pro (subscription tier), Appear Here Concierge (guided booking support), Appear Here Additions (referral network to designers, staffing, POS providers), and the Ideas Fund (grants and competitions for creative entrepreneurs). The company maintains an editorial platform (AHA Magazine), video content series, and flagship events including Underground Sessions panel discussions and the Space for Ideas competition.

Appear Here monetizes primarily through a 7% service fee on booking value (minimum £50/$50/€50), supplemented by referral fees from Additions partner transactions. The business model targets three customer segments: global brands seeking flexible campaign and activation space (primary), entrepreneurs and creative founders seeking accessible entry to physical retail (primary), and landlords seeking to monetize vacant units (secondary). Distribution combines self-serve online booking for SMB tenants with enterprise field sales through regional offices and strategic partnerships with property leaders including Simon, Fifth Wall, JLL Spark, Topshop, and Selfridges. To date the company has facilitated over 40,000 brand launches and raised approximately $35m+ in disclosed funding, including a $14m round in May 2025.

Name

Appear Here

Legal name

Appear Here Limited

Website

https://appearhere.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Appear Here operates an online marketplace connecting landlords of short-term retail space with brands, entrepreneurs, and creatives seeking flexible pop-up shops. The London-headquartered platform operates in London, Paris, New York, and Amsterdam, charging a 7% transaction fee on bookings and serving clients ranging from individual designers to global enterprises like Apple and Coca-Cola.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Commercial Retail Space Marketplace

SIC

Real Estate Agents & Managers (For Others) (6531)

akta.pro primary industry

Retail Tenant Representation (BPAJALAB)

Keywords

• Retail space marketplace
• Pop-up shop rental
• Short-term commercial leasing
• Brand activation venues
• Flexible retail real estate

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Service Fee (Transaction Commission): Appear Here charges a 7% service fee on the booking value plus applicable taxes, subject to a minimum charge of £50/$50/€50. The fee covers platform operations, secured transactions, online legals, product development, securing exclusive spaces, and concierge services. A portion also contributes to the Appear Here Ideas Fund.
2. Appear Here Additions Referral: Referral fees from partner businesses (designers, staffing providers, architects, etc.) introduced to tenants through the platform. Payments are processed by Appear Here with a referral fee deducted before sending balance to the partner.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Appear Here operates an online marketplace where landlords list short-term retail and commercial spaces, and brands or entrepreneurs discover, book, and pay for pop-up shop locations by the day, week, or month. The platform handles standardized lease documentation, secure payments, and disputes, while offering Concierge booking support and Additions referrals to partner service providers such as designers, staffing firms, POS providers, and architects. A curated Plus collection highlights exclusive, quality-verified premium spaces.

Product overview

Appear Here operates as a marketplace platform for flexible commercial space rentals, connecting brands, entrepreneurs, and creatives with landlords offering short-term retail space. The core product is the Appear Here Marketplace, which includes curated Appear Here Plus spaces and a Pro subscription tier. The platform offers the Appear Here Concierge service for guided support and Appear Here Additions for connecting users with third-party service providers such as designers and staffing companies. Supporting the platform is the Appear Here Magazine editorial content hub, Ideas Fund initiative, and Landlord Dashboards for space management.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Appear Here Marketplace Online marketplace platform where landlords list short-term retail spaces and brands/entrepreneurs discover, book, and pay for pop-up shop locations by the day, week, or month. Includes standardized lease documentation, secure Stripe-backed payments, and built-in tenant-landlord messaging.
• Appear Here Plus Curated collection of premium, exclusive retail spaces on the platform, marked with a Plus badge indicating enhanced verification and quality standards. Includes fashion, food & beverage, gallery, and exceptional value collections.
• Appear Here Concierge Dedicated support service guiding tenants through the booking process, helping find suitable spaces, and assisting with enquiries and coordination between brands and landlords for complex or enterprise bookings.
• Appear Here Additions Referral service connecting tenants with vetted partner businesses including designers, staffing providers, point of sale providers, delivery providers, and architects. Appear Here processes partner payments and deducts a referral fee before remitting the balance.
• Appear Here Landlord Dashboards Online portal enabling landlords to list retail spaces, manage availability, review tenant enquiries, and coordinate bookings and communications through the platform.

Quantifiable outcome

• 40,000+ ideas launched through the platform
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Fifth WallcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2017Fifth Wall Investment led strategic partnership with Appear Here in October 2017. Fifth Wall is a real estate technology venture firm providing both capital and strategic guidance for property innovation.
• SimoncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2017Simon partnered with Appear Here to launch 'The Edit@Roosevelt Field' pop-up experience, combining Simon's retail property expertise with Appear Here's marketplace platform.
• Topshop TopmancoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2015Major fashion retailer partnered with Appear Here to launch pop-up shops in their Oxford Circus flagship store, enabling emerging designers to showcase during London Fashion Week.
• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationStripe serves as Appear Here's payment processing provider, enabling secure credit card payments for bookings and partner transactions through their platform.
• WeWorkminorGTM or Marketing PartnerWeWork promotion offering Appear Here customers 5% discount off bookings. Available to WeWork members as a cross-promotional benefit.
• BrownsminorGTM or Marketing PartnerLuxury fashion retailer hosted Underground Sessions panel events in their Club Row space, providing venue for industry discussions.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• LiquidSpace: LiquidSpace is a marketplace for flexible and short-term commercial workspace (meeting rooms, day offices, coworking). While skewed toward office rather than retail inventory, it shares Appear Here's marketplace architecture and time-based booking model and could expand into adjacent retail space.

Broad incumbents

• Industrious: Industrious is a premium flexible office and meeting-room operator offering hybrid workplace solutions to enterprise tenants. While its core is long-term office rather than short-term retail, it competes for the same enterprise customer's discretionary space budget and brand-experience mandate.
• Convene: Convene is a premium flexible meeting, event, and workplace provider operating its own managed venues. It overlaps with Appear Here in the meeting/event space segment but competes as an owner-operator rather than a marketplace, positioning it as a broad incumbent in the same end demand pool.

Direct peers

• Tagvenue: Tagvenue is a marketplace for short-term venue hire across events, meetings, and pop-ups, operating in the UK, US, Australia, and Singapore. It overlaps with Appear Here on event and pop-up venue inventory and competes for similar SMB and enterprise tenants searching for short-duration space.
• Splacer: Splacer is a marketplace for booking unique short-term spaces for events, productions, and pop-ups. Like Appear Here, it aggregates underutilised retail and creative inventory and matches it to time-bound demand, operating a similar take-rate model in overlapping geographies (NYC, LA).
• Giggster: Giggster is a marketplace connecting brands and creators with short-term filming, event, and activation locations. It addresses a closely adjacent demand pool (brand activations and pop-ups) using a comparable listing-and-booking platform, competing for similar landlord supply in major Western markets.
• Peerspace: Peerspace operates an online marketplace for booking short-term event, meeting, and creative spaces by the hour or day. It mirrors Appear Here's core marketplace model — connecting underutilised venues with time-limited demand — but is more event/pop-up oriented across US cities, making it the closest direct comparator.
• Storefront (by WeWork): Storefront is a global online marketplace for short-term retail and pop-up space, directly overlapping Appear Here's exact product category. Acquired by WeWork in 2018, it competes head-to-head on inventory breadth in major cities and brings WeWork's capital and landlord relationships to the same end customers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/appear-here
• Instagraminstagram.com/appearherehq
• Xx.com/appearhere

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds6 records

Investors15 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Appear Here