End-to-end property management startup Reniso has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from a consortium of high net-worth individuals, co-founders Nishit Sharma and Alok Srivastava told VCCircle.
The investors included senior-level professionals from law firms, private equity firms, realty firms, global consulting firms and other startup founders.
The startup will use the funds to expand to other cities, develop its technology platform and build its marketing team, Sharma, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, said.
"We are already seeing some interest and there have been discussions about raising funds for future operations," he added.
While Mumbai and Bengaluru are top destinations for the startup to expand to, Pune and Hyderabad are also being considered. "We are looking at cities which have a high number of NRI properties locked away,†he explained.
Operated by Reniso Estate Management Services Pvt Ltd, the startup was set up in April this year and plans to earn revenue from NRI owners. It offers services such as property monitoring, leasing, renovation, maintenance, legal, sale and purchase and loans for properties of non-resident Indians.
“Since our launch, many owners have come onboard and we have opened up properties that were locked away for nearly five to seven years. The NRIs chose us as there was distrust in brokers and holistic management was impossible," Srivastava, an alumnus of IIM Calcutta, said, adding that they had more than 500 leads to follow from inception. He also said that the "company has been profitable from day one at a gross level."
However, Sharma and Srivastava said that there was no clear demand for any specific type of service they offer. "NRIs are looking at multiple services, and right now, we cannot pin down the importance or demand of a particular service. An owner might want to just renovate today, but after completion, might want to lease out his property," Sharma explained.
The company also offers leasing services via its broker network, corporate deals, online listings on sites such as MagicBricks, 99Acres, Quikr, and a direct channel on its website. "It is early days for us to understand which channel is more profitable. It also depends on the locality of the property which might help us determine the best channel to sell through," Srivastava explained.
Reniso’s leasing service puts it in competition with players such as Nestaway. In an interaction with VCCircle earlier this week, Nestaway’s co-founder Deepak Dhar said his firm was also looking to open up NRI properties.
Other deals in the online real estate space that took place this year include Roofpik, an online real estate property and broker review platform, which in June this year acquired product discovery platform Shoppist.
In March, Bangalore-based Property Share secured investment led by Japanese venture capital investor Asuka Holdings, with existing investors Pravega Ventures and Beenext participating.
In January this year, online real estate brokerage PropTiger.com merged with property listing portal Housing.com. The deal also involved the combined entity receiving an investment of $55 million from the two firms’ existing investors.
In April 2015, PropTiger, which is owned by News Corp, acquired property search portal Makaan.com for an undisclosed amount.
News Corp, the largest investor in PropTiger, owns the parent of this website.