Rental Marketplace RentSher Raises $1.1M from Shorooq Investments, Latitude Consultants and Others

RentSher, an online product rental marketplace, has raised $1.1 million in its latest funding round led by Abu Dhabi-based venture capital fund Shorooq Investments and Dubai-based Latitude Consultants. The funding round also saw participation from angel investors of the LetsVenture platform, a senior partner from McKinsey & Company’s Middle East office, apart from more angel investors from the UK, UAE and Saudi Arabia. 

The company plans to allocate the funds towards developing a global tech platform that supports customers as well as business partners to further RentSher’s mission, Renting Made Easy. In addition to this, RentSher plans to use the capital infusion for geographical expansion in 5-8 additional cities in India and in the Middle East in 2018 along with strengthening its team to scale up the brand’s value proposition for the benefit of the end customers.

RentSher focuses on electronics, A/V equipment and medical equipment rentals through its online platform and offers concierge-like rental service for events. RentSher is marketing the concept of ‘Any life event, Simply Rent’, under which it provides customers anything and everything they may need on rent. The rental marketplace also offers special packages for various rental needs, be it for personal or corporate requirements.

Commenting on the capital infusion, Harsh Dhand, CEO of RentSher India, said, "We are on a mission to transform this multi-billion-dollar market with our easy-to-navigate platform that enables customers to search from thousands of products online, browse all the details and book instantly without wasting their valuable time organizing rentals for their next party. All our business partners receive order bookings without spending time and money towards business development. With the latest round of funding, we are poised to further fulfill our mission of setting up the strongest technological foundation to cater to the company’s rapidly-increasing user base and make renting easy for all across new and existing markets.”

Incepted in October 2015, RentSher is the brainchild of IIT and Oxford graduate Harsh Dhand. Headquartered in Bengaluru, RentSher has serviced over 60,000 customers and delivered more than 100,000 products in the past three years across India and UAE. The revenues have seen 12-15% month-on-month growth in FY 2017-18, with an increasing number of services and products being listed for rent. 

RentSher received Rs 2 Cr seed funding in 2015. The round was led by ex-McKinsey investor Vaibhav Doshi along with other entrepreneurs-turned-investors including Abhay Singhal, Co-founder of InMobi; Vibhu Garg, Co-founder and COO, Unicommerce; Joby Babu, COO, Nimbuzz; Abhishek Acharya, GM, Philips India and Manish Shah of Wipro, UK. 

Other startups operating in this segment are RentSetGo, RentoMojo, GrabOnRent, and Rentomo among others.