Berlin-headquartered Estonian insurance technology startup Inzmo has raised 3.1 million euros round from group investors led by Change Ventures, and joined by Swiss Insurance giant Helvetia.
Inzmo was born as BikeID — an international bicycle registry, security marking kit, and insurance for bicycles. “Definitely a real problem to solve, but hard to make a case for VCs to get excited. Not long after the initial pitch, the ambitious founders pivoted and rebranded as Inzmo, which set out to provide hassle-free insurance for millennials,” Rait Ojasaar, Partner at Change Ventures wrote in a blog.
With new money in the bank, Inzmo is taking on burdensome residential rental deposits in Germany. Dominated by 40-million-plus private rental premises, the German law enables landlords to ask for 3 month worth of rental deposit at the signing of the rental agreement. Considering the average deposit size of 4,000 euros and the average duration of a rental agreement of 5 years, vast amounts of tenants’ personal wealth is locked in rental deposits.
“That’s a lot of money one could reasonably expect to spend or invest elsewhere,” Ojasaar said.
To get to their target customers, Inzmo will partner with property owners, agents and marketplaces. As a pledge of credibility, the rental deposit insurance will be backed by Société Générale.
