NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — After stealthily achieving product-market fit, RentCheck — the world’s first vision-based, automated property inspection platform — is ready to change the tenant-landlord dynamic. The company will take aim at the tenant “deposit deduction” problem: A $45 billion-per-year game of tug-of-war between tenants and landlords over security deposits. To date, RentCheck has raised a combined $3.6 million through its pre-seed and seed rounds, which will allow the company to transition into its next phase, putting its pioneering technology directly into the hands of more property management companies and tenants across the country.
“What we love about RentCheck is that it’s using very clever technology to automate and solve arguably the industry’s biggest problem in terms of money and time for both property managers and tenants. The deposit deduction issue needs a technology-based solution, and almost everyone, at some time, has felt like they’ve been screwed over on their deposit by a landlord. When you see and use RentCheck’s solution, it makes you think: ‘Why didn’t I think of this?'” said John Kuolt, former Managing Director at BCG Digital Ventures, and an early RentCheck investor.
RentCheck’s digital platform provides a way for property managers to facilitate and conduct remote, guided property inspections, saving managers and tenants time and money. Nationwide, tenants and landlords are stuck in a perpetual tussle over security deposit funds, and as a result, as many as 40% of renters end up challenging their landlords over security deposit refund amounts. For both parties, it can be a costly and muddled process; a process that RentCheck’s founders Marco Nelson and Lydia Winkler have been personally frustrated by. The company was born when Winkler successfully sued her landlord after not receiving her security deposit after moving out of a property, and Nelson — who has more than a decade of experience managing property across the U.S. — saw the opportunity to smooth out the deposit deduction process, digitally. The pandemic saw a period of big organic growth for the company, as the world’s first automated, contactless property inspection platform. With the wind at the company’s back, it plans to capture the market and make its mark as the standard-bearer in the industry.
“In the future, we believe that transparency will be the key to renting. Property managers and landlords will need to treat their relationships with tenants as a partnership, something that, in the past, hasn’t been the case. RentCheck is bringing tenants, property owners, and managers together on a single platform that’s built on trust, and it’s proving to be a better, smoother, and more efficient experience,” said Marco Nelson, RentCheck’s Co-Founder and CEO.
RentCheck first caught the attention of Jim Coulter, the founder of TPG Capital, when the company won New Orleans Entrepreneurship Week. Coulter subsequently became one of the company’s first investors. The seed round includes strategic investors such as Cox Enterprises, for its operations in the multi-family housing space. The seed round also included participation from successful entrepreneurs who will provide valuable guidance and mentorship, such as Jim Payne (who previously sold MoPub to Twitter, and MAX to Applovin), Ken Goldman (the former CFO of Yahoo, and who currently runs Hillspire, Eric and Wendy Schmidt’s family office), Mark Zaleski and John Kuolt of BCG Digital Ventures, and Brian Long (the founder of Attentive, who previously sold TapCommerce to Twitter). It also included institutional investors such as Irongrey, Context Ventures, and Techstars.
RentCheck stands to introduce a revolutionary sense of transparency to the rental market for both renters and landlords. Many people, at one point or another, have had a dispute over their security deposit. But RentCheck’s visionary technology, built by expert engineers, will introduce a new level of transparency into the process. The platform was built specifically with both tenants and property managers in mind, giving the company a crucial edge over competitors in the space — competitors that mostly build software for property managers — as it prepares to disrupt the market with full force.
“Post-COVID, digital enablement is a top-three goal for most multi-family executives,” said Vickie Rodgers, Vice President of Cox Communities at Cox Enterprises, Inc. “It is critical for driving operational efficiencies and improving the resident journey. RentCheck supports both of those top objectives for owners and residents. That’s really empowering.”
About RentCheck
RentCheck technology provides real-time visibility to residential property managers and owners while bringing transparency to the security deposit deduction process. RentCheck saves property managers time and resources with easy self-guided inspections that residents can perform from their smartphone. RentCheck helps property management companies grow their portfolios by maintaining unit conditions through elegant and organized property inspections. Property managers can easily compare and share inspection reports to prevent damage and eliminate security deposit disputes. RentCheck is an award-winning startup used by both traditional and venture-backed companies like Audubon and Great Jones.
SOURCE RentCheck
