Marketplace for event spaces offers islands and yachts for rent

Japanese startup SpaceMarket is aiming to be Airbnb for events and corporate functions, hoping to open up any space for any purpose.

Airbnb has turned asset sharing into a mainstream concept, and it boasts around 800,000 private rooms that are now open for the public to rent out. As well as making money for property owners, its key differential in the marketplace is providing a unique experience for travelers. Following its lead, Japanese startup SpaceMarket now wants to do the same thing for events and corporate functions, aiming to open up any space for any purpose.

Much like its travel accommodation forebear, Spacemarket enables those with any kind of venue to list it on the site in order to let others rent it out for their own events. With a focus on luxury and unusual spaces, it currently provides more than 775 spaces for business to use for anything from meetings, training courses or creative getaways. These include an array of unique settings, such as unused sailing vessels, heliports, baseball grounds, old Japanese-style houses in an historic village, and even an uninhabited island.

The company recently secured JPY 100 million in funding, which it plans to use to develop apps and acquire more venues, in addition to providing a concierge service. Are there other ways to leverage unique goods that the average consumer or business would otherwise not have access to?