Well-known and respected entrepreneur and angel investor Neill Miller is amongst those who have invested in Rent360’s recent $350,000 capital raise. Miller has co-founded five public companies, is an investor in Blackbird Ventures, Rebel Property Ventures, CalReply, SEEK and several other startups. Miller is also co-founder of Zeetings and chairman of a US based homeowner association management company called Associated Asset Management LLC.
Rent360, Australia’s first online marketplace for property investors and property managers, was created by serial entrepreneur Jared Keen. This is Keen’s second startup after successfully building and selling Couponstar, Europe’s largest FMCG digital coupon company, in 2011. Keen has also acted as a passive investor in various tech and social impact startup companies and is a board advisor to Hit100 (Sydney) and Soma Water (USA).
With 1.9 million residential property investors in Australia (IBISWorld) and 165,000 investment properties sold and bought in 2015 (CoreLogic), landlords have been faced with limited choice when it comes to managing their investments. Seventy five per cent of investment properties are managed by traditional real estate agencies and 25% are self-managed (ABS, 2011). Keen has set out to disrupt the property management industry by creating an online marketplace where property investors are matched to experienced, local and independent property management specialists to receive a better, more personalised service for transparent, effort based fees.
Miller commented on the investment: “What attracted me to investing in Rent360 is that it provides a real solution to a long-standing problem rooted in the real estate industry. I’m very confident in the company’s founders and plans to reshape the property management industry”.
Jared remarked: “The funds will be used for three main reasons: team expansion (roles in sales, marketing, engineers and customer support), platform development and scaling up our marketing. Neill has a solid mix of both tech and property investment experience. He is well connected to startup and VC funding community.”
