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- Leading Australian rental company Rent.com.au (RNT) will raise $750,000 to further develop its RentPay product
- RentPay is an app for tenants that allows them to pay their rent on the go
- Early last month, the company tried to raise nearly $3 million through a rights issue, however, it was withdrawn
- Rent claims this was due to the “volatility and uncertainty” of the share market
- More positively, Rent considers its recently struck partnership with bank company, Novatti, to be highly strategic in developing RentPay
- Shares in Rent remain flat and are trading for 4.5 cents each at market close
Leading Australian rental company Rent.com.au (RNT) will raise $750,000 to further develop its RentPay “tenancy period” product.
The company received binding commitments to raise the funds through the issue of 16,666,666 fully paid ordinary shares at $0.045 per share to sophisticated and professional investors.
On February 5 2020, Rent launched a non-renounceable, pro-rate rights issue to accelerate the development of RentPay, however, it was withdrawn.
“Given the volatility and uncertainty affecting the share market, we have decided to conduct a smaller placement to current major supporters of the business which we believe is sufficient to get RentPay launched,” CEO Greg Bader said.
The company previously aimed to raise $2.9 million before costs.
“The recent volatility in the share market has prompted us to reconsider where to best place our energy, with a choice between seeking new investors in challenging times, or simply closing with the support of existing shareholders and getting on with business,” Greg added.
More positively, Rent noted the advantages that are expected from its partnership with payment and bank company, Novatti, that was struck in early February.
Rent anticipates the partnership will reduce the overall development costs of RentPay and allows the company to draw on Novatti’s payments capability to make step-change improvements to RentPay.
Rentpay is an app that helps tenants pay their rent on the go. It also allows users to track their payments, history and set up reminders.
“We remain open to bringing on other strategic partners under this model whereby all parties are incentivised to drive the success of RentPay,” Greg stated.
The placement was lead by Pinnacle Corporate Finance and shares are expected to be allocated on March 20, 2020.
Shares in Rent remain flat and are trading for 4.5 cents each at market close.
