Founded in October 2023 by Mayank Lalwani, Rishabh Agnihotri and Shail Daswani, Flent operates a full-stack rental platform that leases premium residential homes, furnishes and manages them end-to-end, and offers tenants long-term rentals without brokerage or large security deposits.Proptech startup Flent has raised ₹21 crore in a Pre-Series A round, comprising ₹17 crore in equity and ₹4 crore in debt, as it looks to scale its premium, full-stack rental housing model beyond Bengaluru.
The round was led by Incubate Fund Asia, with participation from existing investor WEH Ventures, Twin & Bull Family Office, Stride Ventures, 91Ventures and Untitled VC. Angel investors in the round include BlackBuck co-founder Rajesh Yabaji.
Over 40 of Flent’s landlords and tenants also invested about ₹1 crore in the company.
Founded in October 2023 by Mayank Lalwani, Rishabh Agnihotri and Shail Daswani, Flent operates a full-stack rental platform that leases premium residential homes, furnishes and manages them end-to-end, and offers tenants long-term rentals without brokerage or large security deposits.
Daswani said the idea emerged from his own experience running Airbnb properties in Bengaluru, where he noticed that a large share of short-term guests were actually searching for long-term rentals but were using temporary stays to bypass friction in the traditional rental market. “Most of these people were coming in for five or ten days but eventually staying for months,” he told ETEntrepreneur.
Unlike co-living or PG operators, Flent focuses on high-value residential inventory, typically homes priced above ₹1.5 crore, largely owned by NRIs and new-age landlords seeking hassle-free management. “What we give landlords is a guaranteed rental model,” Daswani said. “Once a property is onboarded, we commit to a fixed rent. If we are unable to find a tenant, we pay the rent ourselves.”
The company currently serves affluent urban professionals earning upwards of ₹15-20 lakh annually, a segment Daswani said “will never fit into co-living, because it still feels like a temporary arrangement.”
Flent has scaled to about 350 rooms across 140 homes in Bengaluru, with occupancy levels of 90-95 per cent, and reports average tenant stays of around 14 months. The company is also expanding its product suite, including a vacancy-cover insurance product for landlords which pays rent during vacant periods.
The fresh capital will be used to expand into new markets such as Mumbai and Gurugram, strengthen operations, and fund working capital as the company scales supply.
“A lot of this capital is also about category creation,” Daswani said, noting that trust-building with landlords has already enabled new onboarding models where owners co-invest in furnishings in exchange for higher yields.
Leave a Reply