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Online home appliances and furniture rental startup RentoMojo has raised $1.96 Mn (INR 13 Cr) in funding IDG Ventures India and Accel Partners India.
Founded by IIT-Madras graduates, Geetansh Bamania and Ajay Nain, the startup recently has also started offering motorcycles and bike rentals. RentoMojo said that it currently has around 2,000 active subscribers on the platform, and is targeting 6,000 subscribers by March next year. It has a team of about 50 people with operations in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Pune.
Geetansh said, “We are growing at 40-45% month-on-month.” Besides offering items such as beds, microwaves, television, tables and water purifiers on rent, RentoMojo also gives packages on combined items. The startup gives lifestyle rental access with a line of sight of 11 months. It is a big draw among typically working professionals in the age bracket of 20-35 years. RentMojo does not own any inventory but functions through tie-ups with local suppliers.
The firm’s asset light model was what attracted IDG Ventures India. Says Venkatesh Peddi, executive director at IDG Ventures India, “ If we draw parallel from developed economies, areas like furniture rental and accessories should be close to 10% of the overall offline market.”
The regular funding points out to the increasing investors’ interest in the sharing economy space. Incidentally, IDG Ventures is also a seed investor in another online home rental startup NestAway. Bangalore-based NestAway has raised $12 Mn in a funding round led by Flipkart and Tiger Global in July this year.
Another startup in the space which got funded this year is Furlenco – focused on the furniture market. Furlenco raised $6 Mn in a Series A funding round led by LightBox VC. However unlike RentoMojo, Furlenco owns the furniture that it rents out.
With steady urbanisation and hence growing customer demand in the rental segment, the space is attracting the attention of investors in varied categories. For instance, Bangalore-based apparel rental startup, Klozee, which rents out apparels raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by Tracxn Labs with few other angels participating in August this year.
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