SmallSmall, a Property technology (Proptech) startup based in Nigeria, announced that it has raised $3 million in a seed funding round to expand into major cities including Enugu, Jos and Port-Harcourt before the end of Q1, 2023.
Participants in this funding round include Techstars Toronto which already invested $120k during the 5th cohort of Techstars Toronto Accelerator in October 2021, Oyster VC, Asymmetry Ventures, Vivaz, and Niche Capital. Other individual participants include Sean Fannan of Chartboost, Adam Meghji of Universe, Jimmy Ku of Flutterwave, Samir Goel and Wemimo Abbey of Esusu, Jason Njoku of Iroko and Tunde Kara of Vendease
Formerly known as RentSmallSmall, this proptech was founded in 2018 by Tunde Balogun, Naomi Olaghere and Pidah Tnadah. Its mission is to connect people to today’s economic opportunities by providing access to flexible living solutions. Through its products, it provides ease and flexibility, eliminating the hardships that come with renting, buying, listing or staying in a home. With its products, tenants can afford to pay for rents monthly and landlords can vet tenants, increase their income and manage properties.
According to the CEO, Tunde Balogun in a discussion with Techcrunch on the issue of monthly rentals, “Our market is for young professionals with an average age of around 28 years. It’s a huge market. We surveyed almost 3,000 people last year in Lagos, which showed that 80% of them wanted to pay their rent monthly. So that tells you how much adoption the monthly space would have if the markets eventually opened up.”
Mr Balogun disclosed that the startup has had 476,000 registered people on its platform since 2018. The company has only been able to serve about 1,500 people and it has about 89,000 on its waitlist.
“That shows how huge demand is, relative to the supply, which is very slim,” Balogun added.
The need for the name change from RentSmallSmall was necessitated by the need to allow the company offer more than just proptech associated business. The new name SmallSmall has now afforded the startup to offer three products – RentSmallSmall, BuySmallSmall and StaySmallSmall.
RentSmallSmall focuses on the original idea of allowing users to rent housing and pay monthly while BuySmallSmall packages newly built properties as investment opportunities for young professionals seeking to invest in the real estate sector.
StaySmallSmall is in the Short-let business where prospective customers can book for furnished bed spaces starting at $4 per night.
In the course of four years, SmallSmall claims it has processed over 25,000 monthly stays across Lagos and Abuja. It also claims that it has had less than a 7% rent default rate, saving property owners over $1.5 million in damages and tenants over $1.2 million in broker fees. Mr Balogun added that the company generated over $5 million in its first three years and turned a profit last year.
SmallSmall says this new funding will assist in supporting its vision of “providing flexible, quality housing solutions and financing to intending home buyers.” In addition, the startup will continue building its technology and partnerships with landlords, developers, property and asset managers, and other key stakeholders.
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