Nigerian prop-tech startup, Spleet completes $625k in pre-seed funding round

Spleet, a Nigerian real estate technology startup, has raised US$625,000 in pre-seed funding to help it launch a new product that provides tenants with affordable loans to help them pay their rent.

Spleet, founded in 2018 by Tola Adesanmi in response to the need to find rentals in Lagos with flexible payment options rather than the usual one or two year upfront payment options, allows homeowners to rent to vetted individuals while also assisting people in easily finding places to stay. The startup assists landlords in verifying and screening tenants, as well as automating rent collection.

Spleet has now raised US$625,000 in a 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 funds will be used to develop Spleet’s newest rent financing product, “Rent Now Pay Later,” as well as other products that will enable seamless residential rental processes. The new product will provide tenants with access to low-interest rent loans.

“After launching a marketplace in 2019, we realized that the problems in our rental market were beyond the scope of our marketplace.” One of the most pressing concerns for tenants is affordability. “Most tenants earn monthly income and, as a result, cannot afford the 1-2 year burden of paying their rent in advance,” said Adesanmi.

“We decided to change this by developing a financing solution, “Rent Now, Pay Later,” to assist tenants in obtaining homes with as little as 1-2 months rent saved.” We are currently beta testing our rent now, pay later product with a small number of tenants and are pleased with the results thus far. In the coming months, we will expand this to a broader market of tenants and potential tenants.”

Spleet, according to Zachary Evans, co-founder and general partner at MetaProp, has distinguished itself as a best-in-class product in Nigeria’s “nascent and exploding” prop-tech sector.

“It remains extraordinarily difficult to rent apartments efficiently and we believe Spleet will create a massive business by removing this friction. We are very excited about our investment in Spleet and our broader entrance into the West African proptech market,” he said.