THE BUZZ
CEO of RentSher
START-UP
RENT SHER
A MARKETPLACE
FOR RENTAL
BUSINESSES
THE BENGALURU-BASED FIRM
ENABLES RENTING OUT OF
GOODS, ENSURES VENDOR
SUPPORT AND PROVIDES
BESPOKE CUSTOMER CARE.
By Sanghamitra Mandal
1) The Founders
Harsh Dhand, an IIT-Delhi
postgraduate, teamed
up with Oxford MBA
peers Abhijit Shaha and
Karandeep Singh Vohra
(they are no longer with the
company) to start a peer-
to-peer rental platform that
evolved into a marketplace
for rental businesses.
Later, Vaibhav Doshi, an
early investor in RentSher,
joined as a Co-founder
and currently heads the
company in West Asia.
2) The Trigger
“The sharing economy got
us going. We were amazed
at how companies like
Uber and Airbnb tapped
into the idea of convenient
non-ownership and wanted
to take it further,” says
Dhand. “Events-related
merchandise, electronic
items and costume rentals
had always been there,
but it was an offline,
fragmented and seasonal
Harsh Dhand, Co-founder and
market. When our P2P
platform came up, offline
KEY NUMBERS vendors also wanted to list
their wares, and that gave
FOUNDED IN
us the idea of starting
2015
a marketplace.”
VENDORS
Over 700 from 12 3) How It Works
cities in India and UAE Unlike most rental start-
ups with inventories,
PRODUCTS LISTED RentSher’s has an asset-
10,000-plus, worth
more than light model with no capex
$50 million required for procurement
and no operational
ORDERS DELIVERED expenses needed for
Over 75,000
storage, maintenance and
logistics. It runs a product
FUNDING:
discovery and booking
`11 crore
across two rounds platform and provides a
from angel investors, SaaS-like feature to help
Abu Dhabi-based VC
fund Shorooq and vendors with operations
Dubai-based Latitude while the central team
Consultants
works as a concierge desk
to ensure hassle-free,
REVENUE
on-time delivery. The firm
`8.2 crore
in FY2017/18 offers options ranging from
daily to monthly rentals,
TEAM MEMBERS and currently focusses on
28 three broad categories –
event venues, electronics
and equipment, including
34 I BUSINESS TODAY I November 18 I 2018
PHOTOGRAPH BY LANTERN CAMERA
wheelchairs and medical
beds. Revenue comes from
the margin per order and
a share of the rent. To date,
over 100 SMEs and start-
ups, and more than 60,000
retail customers, have opted
for RentSher’s services.
Key B2B clients in India
include Adobe, Mercedes
and Zomato. The company
has recently signed an
MoU with the Government
of Sharjah to become its
preferred rental partner.
4) Future Plans
The global rental industry
is worth $40-50 billion
and Dhand is pushing for a
bigger share of the market
pie. RentSher will set up
operations in Saudi Arabia
in the next six months and
expand to 13 more cities in
India and West Asia. It will
also explore new markets
in the US and the UK,
and enter more big-ticket
categories such as large
equipment.