Meet RentoMojo, a furniture rental startup from Bengaluru

Startups have managed to get Indian audiences buy furniture online, but there are others who are now trying to redefine it further. RentoMojo is an online rental company ( web and Android app) for appliances and furniture. In a city like Bengaluru, with some pockets known to be occupied by the young, many would find the option of renting furniture feasible when they have guests or parents visiting. Or even others, like working professionals who are always on the move, would find this a great solution for rented apartments. Founded in 2014, it has 10,000 active subscriber base and aims to reach 1 lakh subscriber base by 2017. RentoMojo was founded to address issues concerning working professionals moving cities across their career. Their struggle with heavy relocation expenses led to formation of RentoMojo. “Like many other young working professionals we were living in rented apartments, working long hours and we faced a lot of trouble each time we had to equip our house when we moved. That got us thinking, since ages we’ve been fixated on the idea of owning stuff and after a while when it’s out of fashion or doesn’t suit our lifestyle we simply sell it for peanuts. That’s when we got the idea for RentoMojo,” Geetansh Bamania, CEO and founder at RentoMojo tells us. Bamania along with Ajay Nain founded this startup. Bamania, a serial entrepreneur completed engineering from IIT Madras. He has worked with companies like Flipkart, Pepperfry and KPMG. Today, RentoMojo is a team of more than 200 people and across six cities in India. Bamania says that it is the affordable rentals and elimination of the intermediary margins that sets them apart from other similar offerings. “We wanted to provide a furnishing solution that is affordable, high on quality and very smooth on customer experience at every touchpoint,” he adds. Tech2 checked out the website and saw some lucrative deals such as a three seat sofa for as low as Rs 699 per month and a mini studio with a bed, mattress, wardrobe, study table, chair and bean bag for Rs 1329 per month. However, when we clicked on it, it was out of stock. The company uses technology to offer hassle-free shopping experience to its customers. One can login into the RentoMojo website or app, select from its product range or even curated home packages, pay a refundable deposit and the RentoMojo team will get in touch to confirm the order and delivery time. “We provide free delivery, free re-location of our furniture if you decide to move, free maintenance,” Bamania points out. “We introduced the quickest payment solutions for our existing subscribers to enable effortless rental payments. It’s beautiful the way our app authenticates you in one go without a password and lets you manage your account without any hassle. Come back after a year and we’d still remember you without asking for one caps, one small letter, one numerical and a special character because every customer is special to us,” he further adds. RentoMojo has received $2 million in pre-series A in June 2015 and $5 million in series A funding from Accel Partners and IDG Ventures. It follows an asset- light model wherein they’ve tied up with vendors for the inventory that is rented out to customers and in return charge a servicing fee for it. “We are primarily targeting working professionals with decent disposable incomes and mostly living out of their home city. We all are moving into an era where owning depreciating products has become a thing of the past. Today’s millennial wants to have access to lifestyle products rather than own them. Thus RentoMojo, being the provider of this access to a better lifestyle will positively impact the lives of our target audiences,” he further adds. On the roadmap for 2016, RentoMojo plans to expand to few more cities and also add more categories.