Nigerian prop-tech startup Spleet has raised a US$625,000 pre-seed funding round to help it roll out a new product that provides tenants with affordable loans to help them pay their rent. Founded by Tola Adesanmi in 2018 from the need to find rentals with flexible payment options in Lagos as opposed to the usual one- or two-year upfront payment options, Spleet allows homeowners to rent to vetted individuals, while also helping people easily find places to stay. The startup enables landlords to verify and vet tenants, and also automates rent collections. Spleet has now raised US$625,000 in an oversubscribed pre-seed round led by MetaProp VC, and also including Future Africa, FEDHA Capital, VFD Group, Moonshot VC, HoaQ, Squarefoot CEO Jonathan Wassersturm, Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, and others.
The funding will be used to build Spleet’s newest rent financing product – “Rent Now Pay Later” – and other products to enable seamless residential rental processes. The new product will give tenants access to affordable loans to pay rent. By building a financing solution, “Rent Now, Pay Later”, to help tenants get homes with as little as 1-2 months’ rent worth of savings. Spleet had distinguished itself as a best-in-class product within the “nascent and exploding” prop-tech sector in Nigeria. It remains extraordinarily difficult to rent apartments efficiently and we believe Spleet will create a massive business by removing this friction.