Estonian prop-tech startup, Rendin, a long-term home renting service that replaces security deposits and guarantees rental income, has raised €1.2M in a seed round of funding. The round was led by Tera Ventures, a VC firm investing in early-stage global digital startups.
In addition, the round also saw participation from Iron Wolf Capital, Truesight Ventures, Atomico Angel Program and Startup Wise Guys, with a number of angel investors.
Use of the raised funds
The raised capital will help the startup in expanding its core team in Estonia and launch the platform in Poland. Besides, Rendin will also be expanding its operations to Poland, a market with 2.5 million rental homes.
Everything about Rendin
Launched in March this year by Alain Aun, Maiko Saluorg, and Alar Mäerand, Rendin is building a home rental agreement platform that makes the whole process of home renting fair, fast, and flexible. In addition, it also claims to provide a safe and modern rental process for both owners and renters, including a fully digital agreement on its app and no security deposit requirement.
The platform also claims that it provides insurance for renters’ agreement breaches and offers landlords up to 100 times more safety compared to regular deposits.
Explaining about the startup, Alain Aun, CEO and co-founder of Rendin, says, “We want to get rid of outdated practices in long-term renting that may have been useful twenty years ago but not today.”
For example, Aun continues, “the security deposit is a big extra expense for renters while not doing a lot to mitigate the risks for property owners. Recovering rent payments can be an extremely burdensome process for the owner and in case of any damages to property, security deposits rarely cover for them. Rendin allows for up to 100x more protection for owners but also guards renters from owners that may want to keep their deposit maliciously.”
Rendin’s mission is to provide people with an end-to-end home renting solution that significantly reduces unnecessary showings, paperwork, hassle, and risks in the home renting process.
Growth and developments
Aun says, “Even though Rendin first launched just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, we’ve been able to reach our growth targets. The crisis had a major impact on short-let properties due to the decline in tourism but didn’t change the dynamics of long-term letting that much. In fact, we had to deal with solving cases directly related to the pandemic, e.g. renters losing their income or leaving their properties behind in a rush to leave for their home country, which helped in proving our usefulness to all parties involved in a long-term letting agreement and demonstrating our value for investors.”
With the funding, the startup is looking for expansion in Poland and is already in the process of working out a joint business model with a local insurance company and the largest real estate portal of Poland; a skilled Polish market lead already joined the team.
Currently, the startup has eight members on its team, with tech backgrounds from companies like TransferWise and Kühne+Nagel, and is also looking to double the team. The company is actively looking for product engineers and a growth hacker.