Tera Ventures invests in Rendin

Rendin closes €1.2M seed round to disrupt long-term property rental

Tallinn, Estonia – 29th December 2020: Rendin, the Estonian start-up making long-term property rental fairer and safer for both owners and renters, has announced a seed round of €1.2M. Rendin will invest in expanding its core team in Estonia and launch the platform in Poland.

The seed round was led by Tera Ventures, a VC firm investing in early-stage global digital startups. They were joined by Iron Wolf Capital, Truesight Ventures, Atomico Angel Program and Startup Wise Guys, with a number of angel investors also participating.

Rendin is building a preventive insurance model with the goal to dramatically lower the risks in long-term home renting. In addition to a safe and modern rental process for both owners and renters, including a fully digital agreement on its app and no security deposit requirement, Rendin provides insurance for renters’ agreement breaches and offers landlords up to 100 times more safety compared to regular deposits, making Rendin the safest home rental agreement service available by far.

Alain Aun, CEO and Co-Founder of Rendin: “Rendin is a unique platform that has the interests of both property owners as well as renters in mind. We want to get rid of outdated practices in long-term renting that may have been useful twenty years ago but not today.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, 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.”

The investment will see Rendin expanding its operations to Poland, a market with 2.5 million rental homes. It’s currently in the process of working out a joint business model with a local insurance company and the largest real estate portal of Poland, with a skilled Polish market lead already having joined the team.

Currently employing eight people, with strong tech backgrounds from companies like TransferWise and Kühne+Nagel, Rendin is also looking to double the team. The company is actively looking for product engineers and a growth hacker.

Aun added: “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 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.”

Stanislav Ivanov, Founding Partner at Tera Ventures: “We’re very excited about partnering with the Rendin team. They have a strong vision of how to make the life of tenants and landlords better. Their dedication to end-to-end user experience and process efficiency for all involved parties will transform the long-term apartment rental space that was until today almost fully neglected and untouched by digitalization.”

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About Rendin – www.rendin.co

Rendin is building a home rental agreement platform that makes the whole process of home renting Fair, Fast, and Flexible. Rendin creates a community of landlords and tenants ready to trust each other, value integrity and fair play.

Alain Aun

About Tera Ventures – www.tera.vc

Tera Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Tallinn, Estonia and focused on exceptional founders from Estonia, Scandinavia and CEE disrupting digital space globally. Tera builds presence and networks in the markets where our portfolio companies want to expand to – the UK, the US, and Asia. With presence in Estonia, Finland, and California, Tera Ventures is supported by a global advisory network and provides portfolio companies with access to expertise and hands-on support necessary to grow from seed stage to successful exit.

Stanislav Ivanov

The EstFund is an initiative created by cooperation between the Republic of Estonia and the European Investment Fund and financed under European Structural and Investment Funds.