Rent Butter, the first advanced tenant screening solution designed specifically for workforce and affordable housing, today announced the completion of its seed financing round. The $3 million round was led by RET Ventures (RET), an industry-backed venture fund focused on single and multifamily real estate technology. RET’s investment comes from the RET Ventures ESG Fund (the Housing Impact Fund), which invests in technologies that benefit real estate operators while advancing social or environmental goals.
Founded by Chris Rankin and Tom Raleigh in 2021, Rent Butter was built to help owners and operators of workforce and affordable housing communities better assess risk when screening potential residents. Traditionally, owners vetting rental applicants have relied primarily on static data like credit scores and background checks, which provide only a partial picture of renters’ financial footing. Rent Butter has seen significant traction since its founding, with properties comprising more than 100,000 residential units utilizing the solution. The company has plans to expand its product offering and customer base into conventional Class A and B multifamily and single-family rentals in 2023.
“When founding Rent Butter, our main goal was to create an alternative to the antiquated tenant screening process and to empower property owners with a more dynamic, complete picture of an applicant’s financial status and history – reducing turnover and at the same time opening the door for potential renters who may have otherwise been turned away,” said Raleigh, co-founder and CEO. “As we continue to grow our customer base, we’re thrilled to have a partner like RET Ventures who understands our mission and is so deeply entrenched in the industry. This investment will allow us to expand our team and continue to refine our product and integration capabilities.”
Rent Butter’s digital application allows applicants to share alternative data like banking, behavior and other unique metrics, and then provides property owners with in-depth financial and credit behavior reports in a matter of seconds. By reviewing the entire financial history of a prospective resident and using predictive analytics, Rent Butter highlights key trends — such as whether their credit score is rising or getting worse — enabling property operators to make more accurate and equitable assessments of individuals’ ability to pay rent. The platform also validates important documents like applicant IDs, employment and income in real-time to protect owners against fraud.
