razil is known for its vibrant culture, futebol (soccer) fanatics, and an Amazon that grows trees instead of boxes. It was never really known for self-storage, but that’s changing. Now, facilities are beginning to dot the landscape, becoming one of the country’s fastest-growing commercial real estate sectors. A slowdown isn’t in sight, with new projects in the pipeline as entrepreneurs, developers, and international capital pile in. One of the sector’s newest players making a name for itself is SmartStorage, a company with lean operations and a sharp strategy that reflects where the market is headed. To understand their path to success, however, it helps to look at the pioneers who set the stage.

GuardeAqui opened Brazil’s first self-storage facility in 2006. At the time, the concept was foreign to most Brazilians, but the company began reeling in tenants, hinting at a shifting relationship between urban living, space, and consumer habits. By 2013, the company was operating five sites. “Self-storage is a flourishing asset class in Brazil,” then-President Allan Paiotti told MSM. “The market opportunity is tremendous, underpinned by limited supply, demographic trends, and economic growth.”

Also in 2013, GoodStorage entered the arena under real estate executive Thiago Cordeiro’s watch (he remains CEO and is now president of the Brazilian Self Storage Association, ASBRASS). The company expanded aggressively, eventually becoming Brazil’s largest operator and acquiring GuardeAqui in 2024, though both brands continue to operate independently.

Para Guardar also set up shop that year in Manaus, but it did things a little differently by converting an empty warehouse into a Class-A facility. It was an approach that would later become standard practice for many operators. “I chose self-storage because it combines the excitement of retail with the stability of real estate,” said founder José Benchimol.

The late David Blum of BMSGRP Self Storage Consulting had been keenly watching the growth in Brazil while helping facilitate entry for some clients. He could see the timing was right to put on a show. With that, he co-hosted Expo 13, Latin America’s first self-storage event, in São Paulo. The buzz was loud, as developers, investors, and suppliers were anxious to understand this still burgeoning business model. Blum courted major sponsors to signal the event’s legitimacy, securing Janus International, PTI Security Systems, and others.

“More countries around the world are picking up on this trend, and nowhere is that more evident than in Latin America,” Blum told MSM in 2013. Despite his confidence, Brazilian consumers still needed a little convincing. But Blum didn’t rely on billboards, which can be hard to lease due to strict regulations; instead, he hired “storage ambassadors” to walk São Paulo’s busiest streets, handing out mini-CDs explaining the concept.

His son Eric, who’s picked up the mantle at BMSGRP, reflects on those early days. “Dad recognized that traditional advertising was going to be difficult, and it really wasn’t a good outlet to explain the concept of self-storage anyhow,” he says. “Handing out those CDs was guerilla marketing at its finest!”

By 2014, the industry had enough traction to interest international investors. Metro Storage LLC, based in the U.S., launched MetroFit in São Paulo. The facility stood on Marginal Highway, one of the busiest arteries in the country, marking a turning point for visibility. Two years later, Goldman Sachs invested in MetroFit through a joint venture with Grupo TRX. Despite this, Brazil still had just 150 facilities serving 200 million people—an enormous gap between supply and demand. “Self-storage meets various needs in the market,” said Hans Scholl, MetroFit’s CEO. “In unpredictable cities, it’s a fast, practical solution.”

That same year, Guarda Brasil emerged. The company later made headlines in 2024 during catastrophic flooding in Rio Grande do Sul, when CEO Judson Shannon opened company sites to nonprofits and relief groups at no charge. “We have big spaces, and we are offering them to donation centers that are at capacity to support the movement,” said Shannon. For many keeping an eye on the industry, it was potentially the moment storage was viewed not only as a business but as a valuable community resource.

“We’re witnessing a reorganization of urban space,” Cordeiro recently told Valor International. “Self-storage has moved beyond a niche market to become part of the urban infrastructure.”

The rise of e-commerce has added fuel. Mercado Livre, the region’s dominant online retailer, has enabled thousands of small businesses to flourish without traditional warehouses. Many of those sellers rely on self-storage for inventory, logistics, and flexibility. Urban growth, unpredictable real estate cycles, and rising land costs have all converged to create an ideal environment for the industry’s next stage.

Enter André Kovesi, founder of SmartStorage, which was just recognized by Revista Exame, a prominent Latin American publication, as the 38th fastest growing company in Brazil. “I’m not even a self-storage veteran,” says a humble Kovesi. “That makes this honor even more rewarding.”

Kovesi’s roots are in the technology industry. In the late 1980s he built a thriving hardware company that is still going strong today, but by 2001, he was looking at opportunities in real estate, dabbling in them passively. “Years later, after researching investment opportunities, I found self-storage offered higher yields and less volatility than other asset classes,” says Kovesi.

Kovesi signed up for a Self Storage Congress event and met Francisco Canuto, an industry vet who’d worked on GuardeAqui. “Canuto’s operational knowledge was a key factor in SmartStorage’s success and growth,” says Kovesi. “I initially approached to ask him to be a consultant, and he’s now the co-founder with a CEO role, giving him real skin in the game.”

The duo opened the first SmartStorage facility during the height of the COVID pandemic. It was deemed risky, but it paid off as demand for storage spiked globally. Since then, SmartStorage has grown to nine facilities with stabilized occupancies north of 90 percent, well above the national average of 80 percent.

But SmartStorage’s edge isn’t just timing—it’s efficiency. The company operates with only 12 employees, relying heavily on digital onboarding and mobile access technology. Tenants can move in, access their units, and manage their accounts entirely through an app.

Kovesi also created a proprietary referral dashboard, building an ecosystem of partners who use it to send their clients storage options. “Individuals receive 15 percent of the first year’s revenue from each renter they refer, while agencies can split commissions. It gives us a bit of an edge over competitors who depend on expensive digital ads.”

SmartStorage has also struck partnerships with multifamily property owners and short-term rental platforms, embedding referral links in their apps and websites. The result is a growing network of partners incentivized to send tenants their way.

Franchising is a cornerstone of SmartStorage’s growth plan. “It’s a very popular business model here,” Kovesi says. “There are so many of these properties sitting empty, and we’re able to give them new life.”

The company has already appointed a head of expansion to formalize its franchise structure and aims to become one of the top three operators in Brazil within five years. Because SmartStorage doesn’t build from scratch, preferring to repurpose 20- to 30-year-old industrial buildings, franchisees receive healthier margins.

“This strategy also cuts capital costs, speeds time to market, and lowers environmental impact,” says Kovesi. “These cost advantages let us offer more favorable royalty terms and scale without massive debt.”

Today, there are 595 operations representing over 20.7 million square feet of gross leasable space. Institutional investors are circling, urban space is shrinking, and consumer demand is surging. For operators like SmartStorage, the next five years will likely bring domestic competitors and international giants. But Kovesi believes technology, partnerships, and adaptive reuse will keep the company ahead. “We built this to scale,” he says. “We’re not just following the market—we want to shape it.”

Brazil’s self-storage story began with a handful of facilities and a box of mini-CDs. Two decades later, it has grown into a multimillion-dollar industry, with SmartStorage and its industry peers racing to define its future.