An interview with Ms. Sarika Shetty, CEO & Co-founder of RentenPe
In an insightful interview with Ms. Sarika Shetty, CEO and Co-founder of RentenPe, we discover the revolutionary journey of the corporate in bridging the credit score hole in India.
By formalizing hire funds, RentenPe is reworking the monetary ecosystem, empowering tenants and landlords alike, and fostering higher monetary inclusion.
What impressed the creation of RentenPe and the idea of India’s first Lease Credit score Rating? How do you see it reworking the rental and monetary panorama in India?
Sarika Shetty: RentenPe was born out of a private expertise. I used to be working as the top of a luxurious auto dealership in Mumbai and residing on hire.
However whereas I had a steady revenue and paid hire and EMIs on time, my software for a house mortgage was rejected, citing ‘overexposure to credit score’.
That made me realise that common hire cost was nothing greater than an expense, and it was not even counted within the credit score ecosystem.
I initiated a examine with Ernst & Younger – Parthenon, conducting surveys on monetary establishments, landlords, tenants and brokers.
It confirmed that if a structured rating was obtainable, banks have been open to together with rental information as one of many parameters in credit score selections. Landlords additionally agreed that understanding a few tenant’s hire cost behaviour can be of worth.
Equally, tenants realised that it was unfair to exclude hire from credit score evolution. That’s once I determined to launch RentenPe.
Our distinctive providing Lease Credit score Rating (R Rating™) utilises hire cost to construct creditworthiness. The Residence Card (R Card™) shops a tenant’s profile particulars and hire cost historical past.
Utilising hire funds as a part of the credit score system is consistent with world developments equivalent to former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supporting hire as a credit score issue and even India’s Mannequin Tenancy Act of 2021 which accentuates the formalisation of hire practises.
By means of our R Rating™ and R Card™, we’re working to remodel the rental and monetary panorama of India.
Are you able to elaborate on how RentenPe’s Lease Credit score Rating is calculated and what elements are thought-about within the scoring algorithm?
Sarika Shetty: The Lease Credit score Rating (R Rating™) is India’s first Lease Credit score Rating. We generate the R Rating ™ of a tenant by utilizing a complicated algorithm which relies on varied rental parameters.
When a tenant pays hire by means of the RentenPe app well timed and constantly, completes KYC, uploads different particulars and stays engaged on the app, it builds and enhance his/her R Rating™.
How does RentenPe assist tenants of their journey from renting to homeownership? What are the important thing milestones alongside this path?
Sarika Shetty: As tenants proceed constructing their R Rating™, it unlocks a collection of advantages for them together with entry to short-term rental loans for hire or safety deposit cost.
As soon as tenants enhance their R Rating™ from the bottom rating of 650 to the very best rating of 790, they get entry to pre-approved dwelling mortgage, finishing their journey from tenants to dwelling house owners.
The R Rating™ might be elevated by means of varied elements equivalent to well timed and constant hire cost for 12 consecutive monthss, importing particulars equivalent to revenue, work particulars like firm title, training, household, and so on. and staying engaged on the app.
How does the app guarantee seamless onboarding and verification for each tenants and landlords? What challenges have you ever confronted on this course of?
Sarika Shetty: At RentenPe, making certain seamless onboarding and verification for each tenants and landlords is essential — particularly in a market the place rental agreements fluctuate drastically.
India lacks a standardized rental contract format — tenants might current notarized paperwork, e-stamp agreements, and even handwritten contracts on white paper, relying on the area. This fragmentation poses an actual problem for digital verification.
To beat this, we’ve constructed a sturdy hybrid onboarding mannequin. Whereas our platform helps digital uploads and OCR-based validation of hire agreements, we additionally deploy subject groups for bodily verification wherever paperwork lack authorized readability or formatting consistency. This ensures belief, authenticity, and a safe basis for Lease Credit score Rating technology.
Challenges confronted embody inconsistent doc codecs, low digital literacy amongst tenants in Tier 2/3 cities, and restricted consciousness concerning the authorized worth of rental agreements. Nevertheless, our on-ground presence and course of adaptability have helped bridge these gaps successfully.
RentenPe has lately expanded to a number of metro cities. What methods did you utilize to drive adoption in new markets, and what have been the important thing learnings from these expansions?
Sarika Shetty: By means of an EY-Parthenon report that we commissioned, we came upon that almost all of India’s rental housing exercise is concentrated in seven cities — Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi NCR and Kolkata. The report highlighted that almost 60% of Bengaluru’s inhabitants lives on hire, 48% in Hyderabad and 27% in Mumbai.
Throughout India, the ratio is roughly 35%. Whereas we have been initially current solely in Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru, final month we expanded our providers pan India to make renting a sensible and rewarding expertise for tenants and landlords alike.
To drive adoption, now we have partnered with apps like Mygate to make hire cost a sensible and seamless course of for renters from throughout the nation.
We additionally have interaction with channel companions to drive app downloads, facilitate hire funds and increase our channel accomplice community other than selling our providers such because the 1% Lease Membership for landlords. We’re additionally driving adoption by means of efficient use of efficiency advertising and social media.
What are the following main options or providers RentenPe plans to introduce to additional empower tenants and landlords?
Sarika Shetty: We’re entering into varied partnerships which is able to empower each tenants and landlords.
Our partnership with Eqaro Ensures to decrease dangers for landlords and cut back rental stress for tenants. For landlords, it covers excellent hire, utility payments, damages, and so on.
We’re additionally giving scratch playing cards on each profitable hire cost. This is part of our loyalty programme.
Moreover, if tenants refer the app and other people use their referral code to obtain, it helps tenants earn rewards.
Landlords can subscribe to our 1% Lease Membership for full visibility right into a tenant’s profile and make knowledgeable selections and determine the suitable tenant.
How does RentenPe differentiate itself from conventional rental platforms and rising prop-tech startups in India?
Sarika Shetty: Most proptech firms are within the property-listing enterprise. They help a tenant to find a property. In conventional hire platforms, renters can discover properties which they need to hire and straight hire a property.
RentenPe, alternatively, comes into play as soon as the hire settlement is made. We maintain the connection constructing on this journey. Our Residence Card (R Card™) shops hire cost historical past, KYC and different particulars of the tenant.
Just by displaying the owner an R Card™ with a excessive R Rating™, you’ll be able to earn the belief of landlords.
A excessive R Rating ™ unlocks entry to short-term rental loans and in addition finally pre-approved dwelling loans as banks and monetary establishments are contemplating the R Rating™ as a further parameter within the credit score ambit.
Landlords can go for providers beneath our 1% Lease Membership the place for a small quantity, they will get full visibility into the tenant’s profile by getting their KYC, courtroom report, hometown deal with checked and extra.
Merely put, R Card™ goes to be the rental passport of the longer term – giving each tenants and landlords full peace of thoughts.
Ms. Sarika Shetty’s imaginative and prescient for RentenPe highlights the significance of integrating hire funds into the formal monetary system.
As the corporate continues to develop, it not solely addresses the credit score hole but in addition paves the way in which for a extra inclusive monetary panorama in India, benefiting numerous people and households.
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