Online product rental marketplace RentSher raises more money

RentSher, an online rental marketplace for electronics, medical equipment and items used at events, has raised $1.1 million (Rs 7.5 crore) in a fresh round led by Abu Dhabi-based venture capital firm Shorooq Investments and Dubai-based Latitude Consultants.

The round also saw participation by angel investors from the LetsVenture platform and a senior partner from McKinsey & Company’s West Asia (Middle East) office. Besides them, angel investors from the UK, the UAE and Saudi Arabia also participated in the round.

RentSher will invest the fresh capital in developing a global tech platform to support its customers as well as business partners. The company will also use the capital for geographical expansion to 5-8 cities in India and West Asia this year, besides strengthening its team.

The company is currently present in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi. Last year, it launched operations in the UAE.

RentSher was founded in 2015 by Harsh Dhand, Abhijit Shaha, Karandeep Singh Vohra.

Run by RentSher Online Rentals Pvt. Ltd, the startup also offers on rent baby products, apparel, jewellery, and home appliances.

The company claims to have served over 60,000 customers and delivered more than 100,000 products in the past three years, with its revenues growing 12-15% month after month in 2017-18.

In February 2016, RentSher had raised about $300,000 (Rs 2 crore) in a seed-funding round led by ex-McKinsey executive Vaibhav Doshi and InMobi co-founder Abhay Singhal. Others who invested money are Unicommerce co-founder Vibhu Garg; then Nimbuzz’s operations chief Joby Babu; Abhishek Acharya, global IT manager, Philips IT Applications; and Wipro executive Manish Shah.

The online renting space has been hotting, evident from the activity seen in the segment.

In December 2017, Bengaluru-based online home rental startup NestAway Technologies Pvt. Ltd raised $50 million (Rs 330 crore) in a fresh round of funding from UC-RNT Fund, the joint investment fund of Ratan Tata and the University of California.

In March 2018, NestAway raised $51 million (Rs 332.5 crore) in a Series D round of funding led by Goldman Sachs and UC-RNT Fund.

NestAway had acquired rival Zenify.in last year to expand its offerings for families.

In May 2018, Gurugam-based FastFox, an online marketplace for home rentals, acquired property and broker review platform Roofpik for an undisclosed amount.

Earlier this year, the firm raised a bridge round of Rs 10 crore ($1.53 million) from venture capital firm Lightspeed India Partners. Last year, it had raised Rs 30 crore ($4.61 million) from Lightspeed, Blume Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures and others in a Series A round. It had also raised Rs 6 crore ($923,000) in seed funding from Lightspeed in 2015.

In April, Delhi-based home rental services marketplace ZiffyHomes acquired home rental platform Nivaasa in a cash deal. In February, ZiffyHomes had acquired competitor Fella Homes.

Besides home rental companies, bike/car rental services firms such as Drivezy, Vogo, Wicked Ride, Ontrack, and ONN Bikes have also attracted venture capital interest.