RentMojo, a digital platform that offers furniture & consumer durable products on lease, has found a high profile backer in the form of Samsung and Mitsui Sumitomo. According to media reports, Samsung’s investment vehicle Samsung Venture Investments Corporation (SVIC) and Mitsui Sumitomo will be pumping close to INR 27.74 Cr in RentMojo.
The proceedings are part of the ongoing series C round for the company. SVIC may reportedly infuse Rs 20.88 crore while Mitsui can contribute almost Rs 6.86 crore in the round. Earlier, the company had raised nearly Rs 77 crore in the first tranche of series C round. The round was co-led by Chiratae Ventures and Accel Partners.
RentMojo has so far not confirmed the funding news.
SVIC’s investment in RentMojo again marks its growing interest in the Indian startup ecosystem. If reports are to be believed then Samsung’s investment arm is planning to make nearly 100 investments in the next 5 years. Till date, it has poured nearly $8.5 Mn in promising startups like OSLabs, Silvan Innovation Labs and Gnani.ai.
With India’s millennials increasingly shifting towards renting durable products rather than resorting to costly option of buying them, investors have started warming to startups like RentMojo. Millennials growing affiliation for renting durable products stems from their need to move from one city to another for job and work purposes.
The investment is also likely to prove beneficial for Samsung as well as RentMojo. The former would like to benefit from India’s growing online rental market while the latter may look to tap into Samsung’s strong inventory in the consumer electronics space. Besides, the latest funding will also help the Bengaluru based startup to expand across other Indian cities.
However, there is no discounting the fact that compared to developed countries, India’s online rental market is still in a very nascent stage.
