Baloise Insurance is continuing to deepen its involvement in the real estate sector: in 2020 the insurer has invested almost three million euros in start-ups from the sector. At the beginning of this year, it took a participating interest in Keypoint and its digital assistant for property managers. In June followed a participating interest in ImmoPass, an innovative Walloon start-up that has developed a technical inspection system for real estate.
"The recent investment in Rentio fits perfectly in the strategy of Baloise Insurance to build up an ecosystem of innovative partners that make everything having to do with property easier and more digital. As an insurer, we see our role as being broader than just compensating damage. We want to respond to new needs in society and so we are continuing to invest in real estate start-ups. Moreover, by investing in these new digital markets we are not only further defending our market share, but we can also offer extra services via our distribution model of independent brokers. Rentio helps them take a burden off the shoulders of both lessees and lessors", says Noël Pauwels, Managing Director Non-Life Retail and Corporate Marketing at Baloise Insurance.
At present there are in our country around one million rental residences for which more than 2.5 million lessees and lessors have to find each other, one way or another. For only around 2,500 lessors is this their professional activity. Rentio makes it possible for each rental of a building or residence to take place significantly more smoothly. This isn´t the first rodeo for the founders of the Mechelen-based start-up Rentio. Peter Beullens as well as Jeroen Stalmans and Stijn Roels - the last two being the founders of the real estate website Zimmo - all understand perfectly well how the real estate sector functions and what the needs are.
"With Rentio, real estate firms, lessors and lessees not only save a great deal of time. The entire rental process proceeds in a smarter, safer and more user-friendly fashion. After all, a lot is involved in the rental process: the lease contract, the security deposit, the inventory of fixtures, the payments, insurance policies, utilities, maintenance, indexation. All of these are steps that Rentio can make easier via a platform. With Baloise Insurance we are welcoming on board a strong partner so as to be able to further develop our service. This goes much farther than insurance policies, because the ecosystem they have already been building up will undoubtedly offer us possibilities to find other suitable partners", says Jeroen Stalmans, co-founder Rentio.
Everyone realises that a rental process involves a great deal of administration - but according to Rentio, renting, leasing out and manage property can also be simple and digital. Their app or online platform makes life easier for lessees, lessors and real estate professionals. The latter have all of the information about their building(s) and lessees at their fingertips. Monitoring monthly or one-time payments such as the security deposit, indexation, mobile communication via chat, task management, sharing documents or notifications in case of problems: everything can be done digitally on the platform. In other words, the lessee (or lessor) can rent (or lease out) without worries, and no longer has to collect and keep track of dozens of e-mails or paper documents.
Tenants can easily share documents and communicate with the owner via an integrated chat function or monitor and pay their rental costs via the app. Through its brokers Baloise Insurance will also naturally offer insurance policies such as the obligatory lessee´s liability insurance.
Rentio and Baloise Insurance are continuing to work on how future expansion of the platform and the underlying services can strengthen the offer of the independent broker.