The Smart Option

Bangalore is a magnet for tech enthusiasts and graduates looking for IT jobs. However, migrating to a new city comes with its own set of problems, especially in terms of looking for accommodation and acquiring basic necessities. It is this problem that co-founders Manish Sugandhi, Shubham Jain and Aditya Sharma wanted to address with their start-up GrabOnRent.

GrabOnRent began operations in September 2015 and lists utilitarian appliances and furniture on its portal for users to rent on per day/month basis. Users can rent home appliances, furniture, laptops and gadgets on a monthly basis. For short-term requirements, it has gaming accessories, bicycles, barbeque grills etc on a per day charge. “By choosing to rent, one does not have to invest money for buying or worry about storage space,” says Sugandhi, co-founder and COO. The start-up works with 200 vendors across Bangalore and takes a 10-30% cut depending on the product and the duration.

Here’s how it works. Customers can place an order for the desired products and required duration. They have to pay a security deposit of 10% of the product cost, for renting a per day basis. To rent the products for a month, users need to pay two month's rent as the product's security deposit. “We follow an open-box delivery system wherein we allow customers to use the product in front of the delivery boy. We also have a free maintenance service which gives us an edge over competitors like OLX and Quikr,” says Jain, co-founder and CEO.

After usage, the security deposit is returned to the customer within 48 hours, if the products are not damaged in any way. The security deposit is fixed at a rate that it will cover all damages. Secondly, the product is only rented to customers furnishing valid identity and address proof. All their products are also insured which helps them control major losses.

GrabOnRent started out with an initial investment of Rs.40 lakh and in June 2016, it raised Rs.3 crore in Pre-Series A from Ivy Cap Ventures and Unicorn India Ventures. The start-up has catered to over 4,000 customers with nearly 5,000 orders till date and has plans to expand to Pune, Mumbai and NCR in the next six months says co-founder and CTO, Sharma.