Pune: With a master’s degree from Newcastle University, UK, Aditya Kale entered the Indian market in his mid-30s in 2021, with a strong desire to start something on his own. The intensive study he did to complete an MSc in Operations and Supply Chain Management helped him quickly realize where the opportunity lay. They saw a void in the storage market and stepped in to fill it. Micro-warehousing was a poorly managed sector at the time and to fix this he launched his startup, Airatix.
Cities are bursting at the seams
India’s urban population is increasing rapidly. According to World Bank estimates, it has increased from 31% in 2011 to 35% now. At this rate, by 2030, 40.76% of the country’s population will live in cities.
As more and more people move to cities in search of livelihood opportunities, space becomes scarce and a luxury as demand increases. The result is that houses become smaller and there is less space for storing goods.
According to Aditya, this seemingly minor problem was going unnoticed. People either got rid of things they didn’t have room for in their homes or rented space to store their belongings.
The pandemic has exposed the shortcomings
Renting such spaces became a trend during the pandemic when working from home became the norm. People returned to their hometowns and needed a place to store their belongings.
“Yet there were no reliable, professional solutions for safely storing household items, accessories, or business inventory outside of one’s home. So people were forced to either live in disorganized homes or sell things they might need later. Unfortunately, local storage options were not necessarily safe or professionally managed. We saw this gap and realized that storage is not a luxury – it’s a necessity in modern life,” Aditya said.
need creates demand
After identifying the need, Aditya began looking for a means to fulfill it. “At that time, warehouses were providing space only for manufacturing units. But Covid-19 changed everything and owners started leasing out vacant space for household goods as well,” he said.
However, Aditya pointed out, these spaces were being leased in such a way that there was a lot left over. “There was no clear idea of where one could find a place, no pickup facility, and no clarity on rates. People had difficulty finding a place at first, and when they did find a place, the quote would come over a WhatsApp message, which was unprofessional,” he said.
Understanding the gaps, Aditya planned to fill these with simple solutions.
launched the website
First of all, they clearly understood that they needed to develop an aggregator platform for storage locations. “This will make it easier for anyone to see what’s available and what storage will best suit their needs,” he said.
He started with a developer and started working on it after creating the skeleton. They created a website and began listing only warehouses that were offering self-storage.
In 2021, when they started, they got 25 such warehouses across India, four of which were in Pune. Now people can easily visit its website, airattix.com, and clearly see what places are available and where, and choose the one that suits them best. They used digital marketing to promote their website and in the very first month of its launch, it attracted 15 paying customers.
Post Covid scenario
But, when the lockdown was lifted and people started returning to cities, Aditya noticed a different trend. Now, customers were more specific about the areas where they wanted warehouses to store their household goods.
“People now want storage space near their homes. Meanwhile, I also started getting inquiries from wholesalers and e-commerce sellers. It is not necessary for a small shop selling shoes to have space to keep all the stock. If the size the customer wants is not currently available, he can store it with us and rush to get the right size. So I made a slight change in my model,” Aditya said. “We have now started promoting ourselves as a storage platform and asking anyone who has extra space to list it on our platform.”
the opportunity presents itself
By 2023, Airattix had established itself as a storage space company primarily for household goods, although small businesses and e-commerce players also used its platform. “About 60% of our customers were households and 40% were businesses,” Aditya said.
Having learned to look for opportunities in changing dynamics, they turned their attention to the ground to see changing patterns in needs and detect doors that might open.
Aditya said, “While we had a mix of households and small businesses as customers, I noticed the way the Railways managed their cloakroom, where people could keep their luggage whenever they visited any place, especially in temple towns where people only come for temple darshan and need some space to keep their luggage. So I thought, why don’t we expand our offering to include luggage as well?”
And, they started doing just that, starting with Ayodhya and Kathmandu in mid-2025. Airatics has developed the technology to place goods within a radius of 800 meters of Pashupatinath and Ram temple in Ayodhya.
“In cities like Ayodhya, there is not much to do except darshan. So, people come for darshan and go,” Aditya said. “We rented a 1,000-square-foot commercial space near the Ram temple and started offering it on our platform. Now, people didn’t have to worry about their suitcases. And, since the temple doesn’t allow any luggage inside, pilgrims can safely keep it with us and go for darshan.”
Adapt to customer needs
From storage space for people moving out or returning to cities to people wanting to vacate their homes, from small businesses to temple visitors, Aditya kept and still keeps a keen eye on the evolving needs of the people.
“Redevelopment is now quite widespread in many cities. And the affected people need space for their belongings. Also, Indian Army personnel deployed in border areas need space for their household belongings. We now provide space to some regiments as well,” Aditya said with pride.
cut above the rest
According to the entrepreneur, “There is no one in India who offers what they do. Ours is the only micro-warehousing facility in India. And, our billing is an open system. Once you rent our space, the invoice is generated on the app itself.”
As of now, Airattix has one million square feet of storage space on its app across 20 cities. Adding another feather to its cap, it has also started offering garages.
“Since many people have more cars than they have parking space, we have pooled together people who have empty garages which are then given to those who need it. We take care of every possible need that arises,” Aditya said.
market impact
How has digitization of their service impacted the micro warehousing business? Aditya said, “Oh, it has been a game changer as far as growth is concerned. Proper customer management software, smooth online check-outs, e-generation of challan can really change the game.”
Currently, Airattix employs 40 people – 30 for sales and administration and 10 in the technical department.
financing development
When Aerotics started, Aditya invested ₹30 lakhs from his personal savings. Later he invested ₹Raised 3 crore more ₹4.5 crore from HNIs (High-Net-Worth Individuals). He explained: “As the startup culture grows, more and more HNIs are driven towards it. VCs (venture capitalists) prefer product-based startups as they see it as a safe bet. But, now, this trend is slowly changing.”
numbers don’t lie
Last year, Airattix earned revenue ₹4 crores and Aditya’s target is this year (2026) ₹12 crores. “This year, in just one month, our revenue is ₹1.10 crores. We will easily exceed our target!” he said excitedly.
Their confidence has been boosted by recognition from the Government of India, which last year honored Airetics for being innovative in the supply chain and logistics sector and promoting a circular economy.
The company now plans to raise $2 million to further strengthen its technology with Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as open some brick-and-mortar storage locations. “We have shortlisted six such places so far,” Aditya said.
what lies ahead
Other plans in the pipeline are also connecting more temple cities like Varanasi, Ujjain, Haridwar, Katra and Kumh Melas. Aditya said, “We also want to digitalize the cloakrooms at railway stations. To do this, we have a good SaaS (software as a service).”
Five years after its launch, Airattix is in 20 Indian cities and Kathmandu. And, there is no stopping as it moves forward at full speed. “We plan to be in all tier-1 and tier-2 cities and will have a presence in at least 50 cities in the next two years,” said the young entrepreneur.
