RentBerry ICO Review
(I am not a financial advisor. This is not financial advice. Please DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!)
Rentberry is a decentralised home rental platform.
Problem
• Outdated rental platforms including listings on classified ads.
• Finding accommodation is generally time consuming, constantly and stressful.
• The requirement to pay rental bonds regardless of rental history / reliability.
• Rental bond funds held in non-income producing accounts meaning potential returns on these funds are not realised.
Solution
• Rentberry will streamline the rental process using blockchain and smart contract technology.
• This technology will eliminate the need for the middle man (property managers / owners), which makes it possible for tenants and landlords to complete all rental transactions in one location.
• A rental marketplace where prospective tenants can customise and negotiate their terms based on the state of the market.
• As a result tenants and landlords realise rental transactions executed at the fair market price.
• The Rentberry community are incentivised through Rentberry rewards to cover a portion of the rental bond and thus reducing the financial burden on tenants.
Current State of Product
There is currently no prototype built on the blockchain however Rentberry is operating off blockchain since 2015. Rentberry is an already established platform with more than 120,000 users and has processed over 224,000 property rentals.
Team
The current RentBerry team consists of 23 people with 20 years of combined blockchain experience.
CEO & CFO – Alex Lubinsky
Alex has a vast experience in investment banking as well as founding and exiting several successful start-ups.
Co-founder / CPO – Lily Ostapchuk
Lily has previous experience in product development as well as previously being the marketing director for a property management company. Although she has worked in this space previously and her experience in product development is an advantage it isn’t clear if she has had any real success in these positions.
Co-founder / CTO – Aleksey Perfilov
Aleksey appears to have worked in some reasonably prominent tech companies however lacks blockchain development experience despite being a ‘blockchain evangelist’.
Whilst I was hoping the extensive number of developers on the team would take up the blockchain slack from Aleksey, it appears as though they also lack any significant amount of blockchain experience. Furthermore, business development, marketing and sales staff also appears to be reasonably weak overall.
Overall, I’m not impressed at all with the Rentberry team and question if (given their experience) they are able to expand into the blockchain ecosystem and gain market share to make the company successful.
Community
Telegram 6,970 members
Facebook 12,680 followers
Twitter 11,100 followers
LinkedIn 374 followers
YouTube 78,600 views
Bitcoin Talk
Medium 750 followers
Reddit 220 users
GitHub 4 repositories (last on 6th December 2017). No listed users.
ICO Rating Investment rating: N/A
Hype score: High (3.2/5.0)
Risk score: Medium (2.7/5.0)
Token Metrics
The Rentberry token is an ERC20 token designed to facilitate transactions throughout the rental process in a secure manner. Tenants will be able to pay for rental applications using BERRY tokens and landlords will be able to use them to promote their property. Payment in BERRY tokens will be much cheaper than the equivalent payment in fiat (users can pay $9.99 for a rental application in fiat or the equivalent of $4.99 in BERRY tokens).
The Berry community can use BERRY tokens to financially back tenants and receive rewards in return (interest rate).
Hard cap: $30,000,000 USD
Soft cap: $3,000,000 USD
1ETH = 2,500 BERRY
Currency: ETH & BTC
Minimum: 0.1ETH / 250 BERRY
Commences: 5th December 2017
Complete: 28th February 2018 (11:59 p.m., New York, EST)
Restrictions: United States (excluding accredited investors during the private sale), People’s Republic of China (except Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), South Korea, Cuba,, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Crimea Region.
Bonuses: Dec 5 – Dec 19: 1ETH = 2,500 BERRY + 33% bonus
Dec 20 – Jan 16: 1ETH = 2,500 BERRY + 27% bonus
Jan 17 – Feb 28: 1ETH = 2,500 BERRY + 25% bonus
Token Distribution
• 70% token distribution
• 20% company reserve
• 10% team
Funds Distribution
• 30% IT Development
• 20% Marketing and Sales
• 15% Acquisitions and Partnerships
• 12.5% International Expansion
• 10% Admin & Operations
• 5% Development Fund
• 5% Legal
• 2.5% Bug Bounty Program
Bounty Campaign
Designed to engage the community to actively spread information relating to the company and development progress. Participants are encouraged to write or share content about Rentberry.
There are six ways to engage and reap rewards, with the bounty budget divided as per below”
• Twitter (20%)
• Facebook (20%)
• Article Writing (20%)
• Give Feedback (20%)
• Become a Rentberry Friend (15%)
• Translation (5%)
The Project / Roadmap
2018
• Technology Advancement
• Integrate blockchain and smart contracts technology throughout the platform. Launch iOS and Android apps. File international patents.
• Crowd sourced Rental Deposits
• Allow tenants to reduce the amount of their own money they need to tie up in rental security deposits by paying a small monthly fee in tokens in lieu of paying full upfront security deposits.
• Tokenization
• Launch of a payment system allowing users to make/receive payments for rent and other services on Rentberry platform in BERRY tokens.
2019
• Proprietary Scoring System
• Introduce Landlord and Tenants Scores that would be based on reviews, rental-related history and personal data saved on the blockchain.
• Third-Party Providers
• Offer API integration to local third-party service providers. Users will be able to order services directly from their Rentberry portals.
• International Expansion
• Expand across Europe and Asia. Offer a multi-language support. Partner with local credit bureaus and real estate companies.
2020
• Smart-Lock Technology
• Integrate blockchain smart-lock technology that will significantly simplify open houses and move-in/move-out procedures.
• Online Utility Bills
• Partner with utility companies to give users ability to pay the bills directly via Rentberry’s platform.
Value Proposition
All other rental sites are "classifieds" – they show pictures and descriptions of the properties. That is about it! They have limited functionality and force tenants/landlords waste a lot of time and money on manual tasks (paper applications, manual screening, under the table bidding wars, paper checks, etc.).
Rentberry streamlines the entire process for both landlords and tenant by automating all of the standard rental tasks, saving time for both parties, and ultimately facilitating the property rental at the true market price.
Besides having all the rental tasks done in one place, Rentberry’s transparent rental applications process removes bidding wars and allows tenants to submit custom offers. This creates a healthy rental environment in which all prospective tenants can evaluate competition and make educated offers. Such open assessment results in a fair and true market price for the property that benefits both the landlord and the tenant.
Moreover, Rentberry is the first company to utilize blockchain in the long-term rental space. Smart contracts technology allows for crowdsourcing to help tenants unfreeze millions of dollars tied up in rental security deposits.
Things I Like
• Existing business for which transition to the blockchain would provide value for clients.
Things I Don’t Like
• No current prototype on the blockchain however this is negated by the fact Rentberry has been in existence since 2015 with an existing userbase.
• DApp, which anecdotally doesn’t realise the same returns as infrastructure projects.
• Long roadmap before tokenisation.
• Legislation could prevent Rentberry being implemented in some jurisdictions. In South Australia in particular this would require modification of the Residential Tenancies Act, which would take a substantial amount of time IF it were ratified in government.
• Weak team with limited experience in their respective fields.
• Users can choose to use the platform in either fiat or BERRY tokens.
• Limited commits on GitHub with no currently listed users.
Will I Be Investing?
I’m a pass on RentBerry. Whilst I think the concept is good and the business is established I have several concerns particularly around the strength of the team and legislative barriers which together will make it difficult to implement in multiple regions.