Wednesday 18 May 2016 7:18 am

This London proptech startup’s landed £2m to help make renting less awful

A London property technology startup which aims to be the Amazon of renting has landed several millions of pounds in funding from renowned tech investor Robin Klein, among others.

Goodlord simplifies renting via an app which takes the hassle out of the paperwork with a "rental passport" that keeps hold of renters' information as well as making tenancy agreements digital and handling deposits and fees.

It claims to cut the average moving in time for renters from a week to 48 hours.

Targeting the ever growing so-called generation rent and founded by a former Foxtons estate agent, Goodlord has raised a new £2m seed round in the increasingly hot world of proptech.

Investing the cash are Robin Klein's LocalGlobe, which has backed Zoopla and Citymapper, along with Global Founders Capital, the fund founded by Rocket Internet's Samwer brothers.

Goodlord, founded in 2014 and launched just over a year ago, will use the cash to hire more staff and improve its software, with an ambitious goal of getting 10 per cent of the country's estate agents on board by the end of the year.

The London Bridge-based business has 18 staff but will grow to 35 by the end of summer. It currently has 200 agencies across the country signed up and has processed £17m in payments.

Goodlord also plans to offer insurance and other credit check services to attract agents to the platform and expand to Europe.

Currently the startup is focused on getting estate agents and landlords on board but will soon roll out a version for renters themselves.

“Generation Rent is rightly demanding better customer service from letting agents”, said Klein.

“For too long tenants have felt powerless in a market where transactions were anything but transparent. We believe that Goodlord can transform the way lettings are carried out across the UK and become the backbone of deals in the rental market.”