The ‘Paypal of renting’, Goodlord, has closed a £7.2m funding round after being backed by some of the world’s biggest VCs.
Investment will allow the online rental start-up to improve the cloud-based technology powering its platform and expand its team.
Goodlord claims its platform has facilitated £200m-worth of tenancies and has signed up more than 300 agencies and 85,000 landlords and tenants on its system.
Focusing on cutting administration costs of the moving process, its service ties together property search, reference-sourcing, deposits and rent payments.
According to the Goodlord, it makes renting a home as easy as making a payment on Paypal after estate agents – such as Strutt & Parker, Life Residential and Remax – adopt the platform for a fee.
Richard White, chief executive and co-founder, said: “Not only are [tenants] priced out of buying a home, they are often having to deal with slow, shoddy service when they try to rent a place.
“This funding will allow us to move to the next stage in our plan to revolutionise the way that rental property lettings are done, taking away the pain for both landlords and tenants.”
Funding during the series A round has come from Silicon Valley investor Ribbit Capital, alongside existing investors LocalGlobe and Global Founders Capital.
Goodlord now intends to double the size of its team to roughly 117 people. A little over a year ago it was working with a team of 11.