RentalStep lands £100,000 prize from the Treasury

RentalStep, which won the October 2016 Start-Up Series competition, was one of six property technology (proptech) companies recently selected to receive £100,000 in funding from the Treasury’s Rent Recognition Challenge.

The competition was announced by the government last year to encourage proptech firms to develop or improve products that enable data to be shared with lenders and credit reference agencies.

Read more: Winning the Start-Up Series competition will help me lead “a rental revolution”

Founded by Mike Georgeson, RentalStep is an online property rental platform that connects tenants with landlords and agents.

Tenants create a free Tenant Passport, which gives them a rating based on their on-time rent payments, rating from their landlord, affordability and information on their credit report.

Georgeson explains: “Our unique Tenant Passport is a tenant’s free, online digital rental profile, allowing them to build up their reputation as a trustworthy renter. Both tenants and landlords love this as it does away with the need for referencing, at the same time as providing much more detailed tenant information.”

As well as the funding, RentalStep and the other winners will receive up to 10 hours of free legal advice and supporting PR, access to financial technology tools, meeting spaces and events.

At the conclusion of this second stage of the competition, judges will select three or four of the companies to receive £1.4m to help bring their ideas to market.

The other companies were:

• Bud
• Canopy
• CreditLadder
• META Labs
• Movem

Commenting on his win, Georgeson said: “We are really proud and excited to have won the first round of the Rent Recognition Challenge. We can’t wait to help more tenants improve their creditworthiness and have their rent recognised by lenders. But we are also just as excited to be helping landlords find and retain great tenants.”

“We help both tenants and landlords by not only improving a tenant’s credit history but also providing additional services that make renting easier for both parties.”

Follow in the footsteps of RentalStep and enter the Start-Up Series today! Entries for the April Start-Up Series will open on Sunday the 1st April giving two businesses the chance to win £150,000 in equity funding each.