Rental platform Daylui is crowdfunding on Seedrs to disrupt the sharing economy, allowing users to rent day-to-day items and make money on anything from brand new devices to unwanted Christmas presents.
As demonstrated by the rise of industry giants such as Uber and Airbnb, who all have ‘sharing’ as their main focus point, the sharing economy is a lucrative market. However, when it comes to renting day-to-day items, no available platform pops to mind; this is where the Daylui team believe they have found a niche.
“Most of our competitors are working within specific sector, such as bicycle rentals or music equipment. We think its much more convenient to rent everything you ever need in just one place,” said Daylui co-founder, Valdemar Tunkevic.
So where did the idea come from?
Tunkevic explained: “We were university students enjoying a Friday night, discussing our plans for the summer holidays. We wanted to buy some sports equipment, but it was very expensive, so we decided to rent it. After a brief googling we realized just how difficult and inconvenient it was to rent something online. Hence we started thinking of how the perfect rental platform should look and work like… and Daylui was born.”
For many offering their personal items for rent online, safety is a key issue. Daylui take the safety of its users seriously, implementing a series of security measures designed to put customers’ minds at ease.
“In order to become trusted users, there are verification processes to go through before you are able to start borrowing items”, Tunkevic said.
Similar to Airbnb, the final decision on whether to rent an item to a user resides with the owner.
“The owner of the item will see all the verifications passed by the user and will make the final decision whether to rent his item. If he feels there is lack of trust, there is always the option to decline rental. We also have a deposit system, which gives the option for renters to ask for a deposit, giving them a form of insurance against damage or loss.”
So whilst items are not yet insured by the site, it is one of the next steps Daylui is looking to take: “Definitely insurance protection is just a matter of time. Currently we see more importance on growing community and securing funding, to grow platform. First of all users want to see good variety of rental offers and great community to share your items with.”
The crowdfunding process
Daylui are in the midst of a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs, with the aim of raising £115,000 in exchange for 10 percent equity.
Of the decision to crowdfund, rather than opt for a more traditional form of finance, Tunkevic said: “We believe crowdfunding is a great combination of raising funds and marketing. We love the idea that people can become not only users who use our service, but also become a part of our Daylui, as shareholders. And even if they don’t invest, they can become happy users of our platform. ”
The crowdfunding market has grown exponentially in the last couple of years, with new platforms springing up to challenge UK heavyweights such as CrowdCube and Seedrs. The government’s Innovative Finance ISA initiative, announced in the 2015 budget, has also prompted investors to give more thought to investing in businesses in this way. So why did Daylui choose to go with Seedrs?
“After some research we concluded that Seeders is one of the best equity crowdfunding platforms in the UK, as they have helped to raise funds for numerous famous startups.
“The process is quite easy, but it takes time – the whole process took us about two months. Seedrs are regulated by FSA, meaning that they check companies very carefully and the application process is fairly rigorous. We answered a lot of questions during numerous phone calls and email conversations, but eventually we have successfully passed all the tests, and we are raising!”
With the funds raised from the Seedrs campaign, Daylui is hoping to increase its user-base and its reach, create dedicated iOS and Android apps and improve both user interface and security measures. The team also have their eye on expansion in Europe:
“We have friends in Germany who are working in sharing economy and they loved the idea of Daylui. Germany is a huge market with great potential; people are very active and we like believe market would accept our product well. However, in order to start our operations internationally we need to get funding – for now it’s the only thing is holding us back!”
For more information on Daylui and how to get involved in their crowdfunding campaign, visit their page on Seedrs.