Rentoza
Rentoza is a subscription service that gives people access to the latest tech without the commitment of a purchase.
Originally designed to provide a business-to-consumer (B2C) and peer-to-peer (P2P) rental marketplace for things people only need some of the time, Rentoza evolved into a rent-to-own platform and then a subscription service.
After launching, the Rentoza board saw an opportunity to pivot into an even more lucrative position within the market. Rentoza pivoted towards this with a subscription-based service rendering Rentoza v1.1 obsolete. It served its purpose though, Rentoza was funded.
Getting started.
The old logo really bothered me, so our work began with a subtle logo update and some branding guidelines. We chose more visually pleasing colours that worked better on screens, fixed some issues with the lettering on the logotype and refined some shapes.
MVP, Decks & Funding.
Our first sprint was all about building an MVP and creating slick decks to help secure funding and prove the rental marketplace concept to investors and vendors alike. The MVP and presentations had a direct, measurable impact with Rentoza securing funding and being chosen as one of the top 10 startups out of over 1900 for StartUpBootcamp in 2019. Key Members of our team were invited to join the board. Nice.
Rentoza V1.1.
Next, we turned our attention towards building a stable, working v1.1 version of Rentoza.co.za. This included a borrower (Renter) site for customers and a lender platform for our B2C vendors. Market research and consumer insights informed our first batch of product verticals which included electronics, appliances and baby goods. Turns out people would much rather rent things like car seats that their kids grow out of in a matter of months. Who would have thought?
In this first iteration, borrowers could create an account, find an item they wanted to rent and request to rent it for any period of time longer than the minimum set by the vendor. They were shown a detailed breakdown of the costs including delivery to their doorstep and installation if required.
Lender platform.
Lenders could register through the platform, manage their inventory, and set pricing including promotions. They could initiate conversations with borrowers and trigger an arbitration process if items were not returned in time or were returned in a damaged state.
Safety first.
We had to guarantee the safety of all parties involved, so we integrated with an insurance partner to insure everything rented through Rentoza. Calculations of value and insurance fees were made based on the pricing lenders could set in their inventory management. Anything above a certain value threshold was required to have a serial number logged and photographically proved. Theft and fraud were major concerns, so we integrated with a third-party credit checking service. Blacklisted borrowers were blocked from renting and those with suspicious credit scores were soft-blocked and flagged.