Fronted wants to make renting easier

Fronted , an emerging London-based startup looking to make renting easier is revealing itself via TechCrunch. The startup, founded by former employees of Bud, Monzo and Apple, will launch in 2020 with a product that will allow renters to pay their rental deposit in “bite-size chunks.”

Renters can apply to use the Fronted service by linking their bank accounts to the platform and providing details of the property they wish to rent. Once Fronted runs the required checks and agrees to provide credit, the startup sends the money directly to the estate agent to be placed in the UK’s Deposit Protection Scheme. Initially, Fronted will generate revenue through interest charged and it then plans to extend its product offering with additional money-advance services. The startup also intends to roll out a ‘turn up and turn on’ service for utilities and internet.

“Renting sucks – anyone who rents knows it. There are so many problems to solve and we intend to tackle them all bit by bit. But first, we are going to pay people’s rent deposits for them so they can pay us back in bite-size manageable amounts. Customers will have a direct debit to pay us back over a set schedule, or they can pay it all off when they have the money to do so, [and] we don’t charge any fees. There is also a planned ‘holiday mode’ that will allow customers to temporarily reduce their monthly payments in order to help avoid falling into financial difficulty” – Fronted CEO Jamie Campbell.

Once launched, Fronted will compete with other companies in the space like Flatfair which recently raised $11 million and has the backing of AmTrust Financial. Unlike Fronted, Flatfair doesn’t rely on revenue from interest as it charges renters a one-off fee. For example, renters looking to rent for £2,000 a month will have a max fee of £554. This makes you wonder what solution the average renter would prefer.

Bottom Line: Price-driven innovation.