The collaboration helps property owners access to collateral-free working capital
New Delhi: Eqaro Guarantees, a technology-led financial guarantees company, announced its partnership with Rent Ok, a super app for residential renting that enables you to advertise your property, schedule visits, complete tenant KYC, rent agreement and police verification, automate rent collection and accounting. The partnership will enable zero-deposit homes to young professionals and students nationwide.
Over the next decade, an estimated 300 million Indians will migrate to the top 100 cities in the country, leading to a robust growth in rental yields, creating the need for fractional investments and resulting in quicker property turnover periods among tenants. This will be fueled further by the growth of the millennial and Gen Z populations across India. This generation has found it increasingly difficult to rent properties due to the large security deposits ranging from 2-12 months of rentals. The partnership involves building a comprehensive ecosystem of landlords and tenants and making available zero deposit homes at over 12000 properties in more than 220 locations across the country. The Zero deposit homes will be powered by Eqaro’s Rental Bond, a guarantee that protects the landlord in the event of a default by the tenant. The rental bond acts as a replacement to the security deposit & covers unpaid rent, lock-in period, if any, damage to the property and unpaid bills as set out in the lease agreement.
While reflecting on the partnership, Mr Pankaj Bhansali, Chief Operating Officer of Eqaro Guarantees, said, “We are delighted with our partnership with Rent Ok. Rent Ok has a widespread presence across the country, including key markets like Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai & Pune. The partnership envisages a holistic and growth partner approach to the residential rental segment. While rental bonds provide the landlord with a credit verified and an assessed tenant resulting in faster occupancy with higher rental yields, our customized guaranteeing solutions will help the landlords and co-living operator partners get access to finance by way of advance against rent receivables or collateral-free loans. The tenants, on the other hand get access to their dream homes without the need for security deposit. For the first time in India, the tenants will also be able to carry forward the benefits of their good tenancy track record on to their subsequent tenancies”.
Srijan Raj, CEO of RentOk said, “Our partnership with Eqaro aims to make renting easy for millennials and Gen Z when they move away from home to study or start their first job in a new city. Our goal is to offer the largest collection of zero-deposit homes to tenants nationwide while helping our customers (co-living/PG operators, flat owners) find creditworthy tenants backed by an institutional guarantee. Right now, we add 15,000+ new tenants every month. With Eqaro, we want to ensure that these new tenants do not face the challenges of dealing with high-security deposits. This partnership also enables collateral-free working capital loans for property owners, allowing them to scale their operations without putting up any collateral. We have also introduced the concept of advance rental for co-living/PG operators in India, whereby they can get their rent in advance through Eqaro’s lending partners to meet their working capital requirements”.
About Eqaro
Eqaro is a technology-led Financial Guarantees company in India. As a pioneer in this space, the team at Eqaro is driven by a passion to play a pivotal role in the country’s economic growth. Eqaro offers guarantees in lieu of collaterals and cash on behalf of individuals, entrepreneurs and MSMEs, recognizing their inherent, fundamental strengths and capabilities. The company aspires to create a comprehensive ecosystem of trust that de-risks transactions, helping individuals and businesses unlock their true growth potential. Led by a seasoned best-of-breed management team with oversight from a robust governance framework and backed by the financial strength and underwriting expertise of global marquee majors, Eqaro currently offers multiple solutions that are approved and accepted by a diverse set of beneficiaries, including the government, MNCs, leading NBFC’s etc.
The Eqaro global partner ecosystem includes leading global majors such as Ion Insurance Company INC (USA), Southern Pacific Insurance Corporation (USA) and Northern Light Surety Company SRL. These counter guarantee partners have decades of deep and wide experience of writing contracts, commercial and financial surety business globally.
About RentOk
RentOk is a super app for residential renting with a registered userbase of over 12,000 properties in 220 cities across India that enables you to advertise your property, filter and schedule visits with leads, complete tenant KYC, rent agreement and police verification, automate rent collection and accounting, and access services such as property insurance, rental advance and zero security deposit, all with just one click. With increasing migration to urban hotspots, property owners are shifting from single-tenant renting to multi-tenant renting in desire of higher rental yield. To support this, renting has to become more efficient, and a significant part of this efficiency will come from automation and software. RentOk is building world-class renting software from India, aimed at simplifying the rental process. In 2022, RentOk saw a significant uptake with 131,000+ new tenants added, 84,000+ unique rent agreements signed, and a total rent collected of 224 Crore+. RentOk is backed by India Quotient, Quona Capital, iSeed, FirstCheque, GSF and some marquee angels.
