Rentomojo is online rental platform that believes in the concept of owning smartly (#SmartlyOwn).  The company allows customers to rent out various items like Furniture, Home & Kitchen Appliances and Vehicles.  We pay premium price to buy product which cause huge dent to our pockets. Over a period, the value of the item depreciates and there are newer products in market.  Instead of buying the product, we can rent it out and upgrade the product.  Money saved by this approach can be invested.  Recently, Renotomojo hosted Blogger Meet at Hotel Ramada, Bangalore in which they invited Bloggers (Food, Lifestyle, Fashion & Travel) across the city.  We all got a chance to hear about the company from the founder himself, Mr.Geetansh Bamania.

History of Rentomojo

Its a company that started way back 2014 with the intention to rent out furniture(s) across 1-2 cities. Over the period of 4 years, they have grown across 8 cities – Gurgaon, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad and Noida.  They recently have started their operation in Bangalore from 2018.

The other co-founders for the company include – Ajay Nain, Achal Mittal and Gautam Adukia.  Currently they have more than 400 employees.  The CEO/Founder Geetansh Bamania also received the Young Entrepreneur award in 2016.  RentoMojo was recognized as top 50 venture in ‘The Smart CEO-startup 50 India 2017 program’ as a part of Neeti Aayog initiative.

Event Updates

This is the first time that Rentomojo come to Bangalore and setup a great event that had MC as Zeishah Amlani (famous RJ with Red FM 93.5).

CEO Speaks

We heard Mr.Geetansh Bamania (passed out from IIT, Chennai) addressing the audience and sharing various insights.

Rentomojo was perceived to be a Furniture Renting company that gives affordable prices in early 2015.  After securing $2M funding from Accel Partners & IDG, people thought that this company rents bikes & furniture.  Perceptions have changed over the period and now after receiving in total of $10M in funding, it is thought of as consumer leasing startup.

The company did some research before launching their online portal. Couple of question they did seek answers from public – Renting, Owning Products, EMI & few other things.  They came up with the novel idea of RMI (Rentomojo Monthly Installment), which is much cheaper and works out to be more effective.  This simply is made possible by buys multiple products at a wholesale price, which reduces the RMI.

The team at Rentomojo has also researched on the current population of India, in which nearly 45% are youth.  The young generation does not mind taking up opportunities in different cities.  After staying in one place for a few years, they are ready to look for new opportunities in other cities.  At the same time, youngsters want to maintain a certain lifestyle and comforts.  This is made possible by Rentomojo which lets people rent furniture, appliances, and two-wheelers along with providing maintenance and relocation services.

Geetansh also shared a comparative study between EMI & Service provided by Rentomojo.  Some of them include – Cheaper monthly payout, Cancel anytime, Free Relocation, Free Maintenance and Free Swap.  While both EMI and Rentomojo services don’t lead to money being stuck, the added benefits provided by Rentomojo make it more customer friendly.

Value proposition provided can be summed up in 4 words – Rent, Return, Own and Relocate.  There are many new schemes like Rent-To-Own being introduced, which are very exciting to watch out for.

Rent-To-Own Option

Renting out essential items at home is cost effective as mentioned earlier.  But many of us still like the idea of owning the product, which gives a sense of belonging.  Rentomojo is coming up with the new approach which will enable a customer to initially rent and later buy it.  The amount that will be required to pay for owning will still be less compared to paying by EMI.  Company will be divulging more info regarding this new option in the next few days.

Partner Speaks

Amaldeep (passed out from IIM, Ahmadabad) also address the audience.  He expressed his excitement and strong future for the company.  During the discussion, he highlighted on a key feature that will be provided by Rentomojo.  If a customer likes a product in the market, that is not present in Rentomojo site, they will make it available & share the RMI price. 

Q&A Session

This was one of the most awaited section as there were many doubts in the mind of people.  We came to know about few more operational details.

• Once the customer chooses the product on the portal, Rentomojo provides rental options for 3/6/12/24/36 months.
• Initial deposit (2 months RMI) collected at the time of product purchase. A photo of the product taken at the time of delivery and return. If the product damaged, appropriate amount deducted from deposit.
• If a customer wants to return the product before the end of tenure. The company will add up the RMI for the product, if it were to taken for the limited period. And the customer only needs to pay differential amount to end the contract. For example, if 2 customers A& B, take product for 6 & 12 months, each having to pay INR400 & INR300. If customer B, decides to end the contract at 6 months, differential amount will need to paid (12×300-6×400=3600-2400=1200). This is still very convenient for customers.
• The products are thoroughly inspected before its delivered to the customers. Customer has the option to reject the product during the time of delivery, if they find something wrong.
• Rentomojo has Home Appliances of good brands like – Whirlpool, LG & others.  They also have Bullet bike available for rent.  Going forward they plan to add 4-wheeler and many other branded products.

Personal Interaction Session

In the last part of the evening, we all got an opportunity to speak to Rentomojo team over dinner.  Geetansh and Amaldeep were very open in sharing their thoughts and answers questions directly.  They did answer many of the queries openly and for a few they did take back the inputs.  I could feel the confidence and aggressiveness exuberating from everyone that from Rentomojo team I interacted with – Geetansh (Founder), Amaldeep (Partner), Tulika Shukla (Brand Strategy & Communications) & Alka Gupta (Marketing Manager).

Overall Experience

It was a great evening spent at Hotel Ramada as part of the Bloggers Meet hosted by Rentomojo.  The idea of being a smart owner of a product and save money sounded very cool.  Geetansh Bemani shared a lot insight into the history, perspectives, services provided and the future.  The idea of being able to Rent, Cancel Anytime, Free Relocation, Free Maintenance & Free Swap are very good.  With the ability to rent any product from Home Appliance to Vehicle at reasonable price, people can save more.  I foresee that in near future, Rentomojo will be able to rent many more things and be a complete game-changer.

References

Rentomojo
https://www.rentomojo.com