Sydney fintech start-up Easyshare has launched its new digital platform, aiming to make the lives of Australia’s 4.1 million renters easier by eliminating their common disputes over money splits for rent and bills.
Co-founded by ex-Ferrier Hodgson accountant and member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, John Bush (pictured right), and ex-NASDAQ trading systems, CTO Rob Fowler (pictured left), the new payment platform has been in development for two years and was inspired by John’s own struggles in collecting his flatmates’ portion of rent and bills.
“It would be very rare that there is no friction between flatmates over unpaid or late rental payments and the sharing of bills when they co-habit,” John remarked. “Easyshare makes payment of shared rent and bills automatically, removing all of the angst.”
He went on to say that it is also a god send for agents, landlords and suppliers, as they gain certainty over payments and a simple method of collecting money from share houses or apartments.
How does Easyshare work?
Using the platform, each user sets up their own payment method (either credit card or direct debit) and based on the pre-determined “split”, the user’s portion of rent and expenses is debited from them, collated via an Easyshare account and pushed out to end biller/agent’s trust account on the due date.
In Australia alone there are more than 1.3 million rented dwellings with real estate agents and they constantly complain about having to chase the occupants for rent – Easyshare now provides a way to remove this difficulty.
The start-up, which has been funded so far by four high net worth individuals, has established a merchant facility with the NAB, which it uses to process its financial transactions.
In addition to Easyshare for shared accommodation, there are two additional platforms that have also been launched for single occupant residential and commercial tenants.
One is Easyshare Residential, a platform for paying residential rent via credit card.
This is more suited to families or single occupant households where the full rent is paid by “one” person and can do so via credit card, in turn earning credit card reward points.
The other is Easyshare Commercial, a platform for the payment of commercial premises rent including retail shops, offices and industrial unit rent.
This one is targeted at small business owners as the interest free day offering of card issuers, couple with the reward points helps stabilise small business cash flow.
“Digital platforms are transforming lives and businesses and we believe Easyshare will do the same for the millions of Australians who share a house or apartment,” John said.
