Garentii receives 1.9 million euros

The insurtech offers insurance as a replacement for rental deposits. Seed financing is now available shortly before the market launch.

Shortly before the market launch, Garentii has completed a seed financing round of 1.9 million euros. The Munich-based start-up has received venture capital from reinsurer Greenlight Re, Elkstone Ventures and a German private investor.

Founded last year by Michael Hazoume, Dennis Stern and Vitaliy Zhovtyuk, the start-up aims to revolutionize the deposit payment process. Normally, tenants have to pay a deposit of three months' rent for their apartment. This is usually a one-off payment that is then held in the landlord's account as security and cannot be used for other purposes. This is where Garentii comes into play: the start-up has developed a digital deposit insurance and management system. The tool replaces cash deposits free of charge, simplifies the management of cash deposits and insures against potential losses for landlords. Tenants pay just three euros a month as a one-off payment instead of three months' rent.

"The security deposit replacement insurance model has already proven itself in the US market and can be perfectly replicated in other tenant-heavy markets," explains Simon Burton, Managing Director of Greenlight Re, the reinsurer that invested in the project. "With the development of its technology platform for processing and managing security deposit insurance policies, Garentii will make renting an apartment as simple and smooth as possible for both the landlord and the tenant."

The capital from the financing round will be used for the company's further growth after its official market launch. The start-up's platform is set to launch in Germany this month. Garentii would then like to expand into other countries this year.