Self-storage site SpaceWays expands to France

A website aiming to shake up the self-storage market says it is expanding to Paris to take advantage of the French capital's notoriously small apartments.

SpaceWays said Wednesday it plans to offer the same home pickup and delivery service, booked online, that's already available in London. The company launched its first site in Britain in July.

Co-founder Rob Rebholz says SpaceWays wants to create the equivalent of data cloud-storage services, but for physical objects.

The Berlin-based company is one of dozens of startups backed by Germany's Rocket Internet, which last week announced it was planning a public stock offering later this year.

Rocket typically provides seed funding, technical and logistical support in return for an equity stake. The startups are expected to operate independently after several months.