RentCheck, an automated property inspection platform has raised a combined $3.6 million through its pre-seed and seed rounds, which will allow the company to take aim at the tenant “deposit deduction” problem: a $45 billion-per-year game of tug-of-war between tenants and landlords over security deposits.
RentCheck’s digital platform provides a way for property managers to facilitate and conduct remote, guided property inspections, saving managers and tenants time and money. According to Roose, up to 40% of renters challenge their landlords over security deposit refund amounts.
“What we love about RentCheck is that it’s using very clever technology to automate and solve arguably the industry’s biggest problem in terms of money and time for both property managers and tenants. The deposit deduction issue needs a technology-based solution and almost everyone, at some time, has felt like they’ve been screwed over on their deposit by a landlord. When you see and use RentCheck’s solution, it makes you think: ‘Why didn’t I think of this?’” said John Kuolt, former managing director at BCG Digital Ventures and an early RentCheck investor.
For both parties, it can be a costly and muddled process; a process that RentCheck’s founders Marco Nelson and Lydia Winkler have been personally frustrated by. The company was born when Winkler successfully sued her landlord after not receiving her security deposit after moving out of a property, and Nelson — who has more than a decade of experience managing property across the U.S. — saw the opportunity to smooth out the deposit deduction process, digitally.
“In the future, we believe that transparency will be the key to renting. Property managers and landlords will need to treat their relationships with tenants as a partnership, something that, in the past, hasn’t been the case. RentCheck is bringing tenants, property owners and managers together on a single platform that’s built on trust, and it’s proving to be a better, smoother, and more efficient experience,” said Nelson, RentCheck co-founder and CEO.
RentCheck first caught the attention of Jim Coulter, the founder of TPG Capital, when the company won New Orleans Entrepreneurship Week. Coulter subsequently became one of the company’s first investors. The seed round includes strategic investors such as Cox Enterprises, for its operations in the multi-family housing space. The seed round also included participation from successful entrepreneurs who will provide valuable guidance and mentorship, such as Jim Payne (who previously sold MoPub to Twitter, and MAX to Applovin), Ken Goldman (the former CFO of Yahoo, and who currently runs Hillspire), Mark Zaleski and John Kuolt of BCG Digital Ventures, and Brian Long (the founder of Attentive, who previously sold TapCommerce to Twitter). It also included institutional investors such as Irongrey, Context Ventures and Techstars.
