Nestpick, a Berlin-based startup, is looking to shake things up in the rental industry. With a new $11 million in funding, it aims to put the entire rental process on the Internet.
These days, the rental trend is to find a room or a house through classified ads or property sites such as Craigslist. The next step then goes offline, when the prospective tenant goes to view the house and negotiate with the landlord directly. With Nestpick, in-person viewing is eliminated, making the process faster and more convenient for both the landlord and the tenant.
According to the company's website, the rental process requires three easy steps:
1. Find a nest.
2. Request to book, which requires you to deposit a reservation fee to the landlord.
3. Get confirmation. Within 48 hours, the landlord will get in touch with you, and you can "spread your wings and fly to your nest."
In a press release dated Monday, Nov. 2, the company announced that it has raised an additional $11 million in funding. Investors include Mangrove Capital Partners, Enern and Rocket Internet.
"In five years from now, people will be renting their homes entirely online, bringing fairness, transparency and joy into the broken real estate market. This investment will help us create a better experience for our landlords and tenants, taking us closer to our vision," Fabian Dudek, founder and CEO, stated.
Dudek created Nestpick in 2014, when he found himself looking for a place to stay while studying. In less than a year, the company has listed more than 21,000 homes and transacted over $17.5 million in rental income. Initially, users were mostly students or expats who were looking for accommodations in a foreign land. Now, the company states that 33 percent of its users are local tenants.
The additional funding will be used to expanding the company and creating a better experience for its users.
"Landlords are tired of spending 20-40 hours each time they rent out their properties despite receiving so many enquiries, and they hate losing months of rent from the transition between tenants," Dudek told TechCrunch. "Our challenge is to seamlessly connect these two worlds - the old fashioned real estate market made up of landlords who are uncertain about new technology and the current generation of tenants that are all mobile-first, and use apps like Instagram, Tinder, and Spotify every day."
While many might feel that online rentals pose fraud and scam risks, Dudek emphasized that his company is dedicated to solving these issues.
Nestpick's new investors seem to believe in its vision. "Nestpick is achieving this by bringing reliability and convenience for both tenants and owners to the next level. We are excited to add Nestpick to our portfolio and look forward to supporting them on their path to become a global market leader," Hans-Jürgen Schmitz, Mangrove's co-founder, concluded.
