Appear Here is an online marketplace for retail space. Since the company was founded in 2014, it has facilitated the opening of over 10,000 stores in the UK, US, and France.

History

In the summer of 2012, Ross Bailey and a friend decided to create a brand called Rock and Rule to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. They opened a pop up shop on Marshall Street, Soho to launch it. What surprised Bailey was the number of people asking him how he got hold of the shop. When Rock and Rule closed, Bailey took his share of the profit and put it into launching Appear Here. Currently, Appear Here lists over 10,000 short-term spaces worldwide, with prime retail properties in global cities including,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Over 200,000 brands have signed up to the platform, including

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

, Supreme,

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

Chanel Chanel ( , ) is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. It is privately owned by French brothers, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, through the holding company Chanel Limited, established in 2018 and headquarte ...

and

Tommy Hilfiger Thomas Jacob Hilfiger ( ; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger (company), Tommy Hilfiger Corporation. After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's P ...

Expansion

In November 2013, Appear Here closed a £1 million funding round, securing backing from Howzat Partners (backers of

Trivago Trivago N.V. is a German technology company that specializes in travel and lodging. Its main product is the Trivago online search engine and accommodation booking website that lists prices provided by hotels and other booking websites. History ...

), MMC Ventures (backers of AlexandAlexa) and Forward Investment Partners (existing investors and backers of

uSwitch Uswitch Limited is a UK-based price comparison service and switching website founded in 2000. Users can conveniently compare prices across various sectors of energy, personal finance, insurance, and communications History uSwitch.com was fo ...

and

Hailo Hailo was a British technology platform that matched taxi drivers and passengers through its mobile phone application. Founded in London in 2011, the Hailo taxi service was available in 16 cities (as of December 2013). By May 2013, Hailo had en ...

). Other participants in this round include

Meyer Bergman MARK Capital Management (previously Meyer Bergman) is a British real estate investing , real estate investment management firm. , it had more than €7 billion in assets under management. MARK Capital Management was formed in 2004 by its chairma ...

, Playfair Capital and Ballpark Ventures, as well as Marc Hazan (of

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

) and Miroma Ventures (investors in

Pinterest Pinterest is an American social media service for publishing and discovery of information in the form of digital Bulletin board, pinboards. This includes recipes, home, style, motivation, and inspiration on the Internet using image sharing. Pint ...

). In November 2014, Appear Here raised a further £5 million from

Balderton Capital Balderton Capital is a venture capital firm based in London, UK, that invests in early-stage, technology and internet Startup company, startup companies in Europe. It is considered to be among the four-biggest venture capital firms in the English ...

to fund its international expansion. In 2016, Appear Here launched in its first international city, Paris. In April 2017, Appear Here expanded to the US, launching in New York. In May 2017, Appear Here raised $12 million in Series B funding. Leading the round was

Octopus Ventures Octopus Capital Limited, trading as Octopus Group, is a privately held United Kingdom based holding company founded in 2000 by Simon Rogerson, Christopher Hulatt and Guy Myles as a fund management company. Through its subsidiaries, it operates i ...

, with participation from Simon Venture Group, and existing investors

, MMC, Meyer Bergman and Playfair Capital.

Partnerships

Transport for London, April 2014

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

appointed Appear Here to introduce pop up shops across its retail estate, including key underground stations such as,

Piccadilly Circus tube station Piccadilly Circus is a London Underground station in Central London. It is located directly beneath Piccadilly Circus itself, with entrances at every corner. The station is served by the Bakerloo line, Bakerloo and Piccadilly line, Piccadilly l ...

Baker Street Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder James Baker. The area was originally high class residential, but now is mainly occupied by commercial premises. The street is ...

Old Street Station Old Street is an interchange station at the junction of Old Street and City Road in Central London for London Underground and National Rail services. The London Underground station is on the Bank and Monument stations, Bank branch of the Nort ...

St Paul's tube station St Paul's is a London Underground station located in the City of London financial district. The station, which takes its name from the nearby St Paul's Cathedral, is on the Central line, between Chancery Lane and Bank stations, and is in far ...

and

Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...

. As part of this new partnership, Appear Here took an active role in the curation of Old Street Station transforming it into a new retail destination dedicated to

pop-up retail Pop-up retail, also known as pop-up store (pop-up shop in the UK, Australia and Ireland) or flash retailing, is a trend of opening short-term sales spaces that last for days to weeks before closing down, often to latch onto a fad or scheduled e ...

. The station was given a revamp and eight retail spaces within were white-boxed and listed on Appear Here's marketplace. In 2015, Appear Here was awarded Property Week's Placemaking award for Old Street Station

Since launch, over 500 brands have appeared in the station, including Adidas, Calvin Klein, Jamie Oliver and streetwear concept store Ejder which won Best Pop Up Shop at the Mapic Awards 2016. In 2017,

took over the entire station for the launch of

Black Mirror ''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology series, anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Most episodes are set in near-future dystopias containing Science fiction, sci-fi technology—a type of speculative fiction. The series i ...

Season 4.

Topshop, In-Residence, September 2015

Appear Here partnered with

Topshop TOPSHOP (originally Top Shop) is a British online fast-fashion retailer, which specialises in women's clothing, shoes and accessories. It is majority owned by Danish company, Bestseller. In 2024, ASOS sold 75% of Topshop and Topman to Bests ...

in 2015 to list concession space in their flagship store, 214 Oxford Street. This was the first time that concession space within the store was made available to be booked online. The spaces include market stalls, residence walls, retail and event spaces. Since launch, over 100 brands have appeared in Topshop through Appear Here, including

and independent jewellery brand Littlesmith who went from one Saturday stall in Spitalfields to a permanent residence across Topshop's key stores.

Hammerson, Up Market, May 2017

Hammerson Hammerson PLC is a major British property development and investment company. The firm switched to real estate investment trust (REIT) status when they were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is listed on the London Stock Excha ...

and Appear Here teamed up to launch Up Market, an initiative to give emerging small businesses and artisan brands the chance to access major malls and prime retail destinations. Curated by Appear Here, Up Market showcases a rotating collection of independent food, fashion and lifestyle brands in bespoke, collapsible market stalls. As part of a three-year agreement, Up Market has already appeared in six of Hammerson's major shopping centres, opening 37 market stalls across Birmingham's Bullring, Brent Cross (London), One New Change (London), Cabot Circus (Bristol) and Victoria Quarter (Leeds).

Simon Property Group, The Edit, November 2017

Simon Property Group Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping malls, outlet centers, and community/lifestyle centers. It is the largest owner of shopping malls in the United States and is headquartered in Indian ...

exclusively partnered with Appear Here to create a "new shopping experience" inside one of the country's largest malls – Roosevelt Field.

Unicef Next Generation, Imad's Syrian Kitchen, March 2017

Appear Here partnered with

Unicef UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

Next Generation to help Imad Alarnab, a Syrian chef and refugee, launch a restaurant in London.

Bode Pop Up, Art Basel Miami Beach, March 2019

During

Art Basel Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel (Switzerland), Miami Beach (US), Hong Kong and Paris. Art Basel provides a platform for galleries to show and sell their work to buyers, an ...

Miami Beach, Appear Here partnered with menswear designer Bode to launch a store at 2621 Northwest Second Avenue. The shop sold pieces from Bode's fall collection and showcased furniture from Green River Project.

References

{{reflist Online marketplaces of the United Kingdom