Warburg-Backed StorHub Names Raju Ruparelia CEO in Growth Drive

Just over one month after expanding into its seventh major market, StorHub Group on Tuesday announced the hiring of Raju Ruparelia as CEO, succeeding Mike Hagbeck at the helm of the Asia Pacific self-storage operator.

Hagbeck, co-founder and CEO for the past five years at StorHub, will become non-executive chairman and remain a board director to help guide long-term strategy and continued market expansion, the Warburg Pincus-backed company said in a release.

Now stationed at StorHub’s head office in Singapore, Ruparelia takes charge of a regional platform that has acquired and developed more than 470 locations spanning 6.8 million square feet (631,741 square metres) of gross floor area since the company’s founding in 2019.

“We would like to thank Mike for his strong partnership and contribution to the company’s first phase of growth,” said Li Fan, managing director at private equity major Warburg Pincus. “We have built a very strong foundation and look forward to working closely with him as chairman to support Raju and the team on the company’s next phase of accelerated growth.”

Princeton Digital Investments

In March, growth-focused StorHub revealed its expansion into Australia with $300 million in equity commitments, following the group’s acquisition of self-storage operators in Japan and Malaysia last year.

The platform also has a presence in Singapore and key markets of South Korea and Greater China, encompassing 70,000 storage units regionwide.

“It’s truly impressive that StorHub has emerged to become the prominent player in the self-storage industry in Asia Pacific over the past five years,” Ruparelia said. “Driven by multiple favourable tailwinds, I firmly believe that the self-storage industry in Asia Pacific is at an inflection point.”

Ruparelia joins StorHub from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, where he most recently served as the Canadian fund’s Hong Kong-based head of Asia Pacific private capital. At Toronto-based OTPP, Ruparelia oversaw direct private equity activities across Asia Pacific, including investments in Singapore-based data centre operator Princeton Digital Group alongside Warburg Pincus and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company.

Frontline of Storage

Hagbeck assumes his new role after founding and serving as CEO of four APAC self-storage companies since 2007, including Extra Space, Minibox, Store-It and Space Next Door, as well as StorHub affiliate Winebanc.

After more than 25 years “at the frontline” of the self-storage industry, Hagbeck said he was pleased to pass the reins to Ruparelia.

“It has been an amazing journey of growth and partnership over the past five years with the company,” he said. “Drawing on Warburg Pincus’s extensive experience in scaling regional platforms, StorHub has achieved outsized growth in size and scale across the region and built a high-calibre leadership team with significant industry experience and deep local market insights.”