Founded in middle of the pandemic by Conor McGarry, the Kildare-based proptech start-up wants to establish a ‘new, fairer industry standard’ for renters in Ireland.
Conor McGarry is no stranger to the rental crisis in Dublin.
Having moved to the big city to study Economics at University College Dublin (UCD) many years ago, the Kildare-native saw first-hand over the next two decades how hard it was to find accommodation in what has become one of Europe’s most expensive cities.
“There’s a huge supply-demand imbalance in the rental sector in Ireland. I think that the lack of suitable rental accommodation available is putting huge stress on renters looking for a home,” he says.
“We see this daily with renters contacting us desperate to find a place to live. Secondly, each year we see regulatory changes in the rental market which adds extra uncertainty and administration costs for landlords. Thirdly, there’s a genuine need for technological adaptation in the sector. Many aspects of the rental journey are opaque and inefficient, and I believe technology can help solve this.”
‘Secure and bias-free renting’
While a bulk of the heavy-lifting will have to be done by the Government, McGarry’s approach to helping this rental crisis – persistent across Ireland – is by building a platform that helps connect tenants to prospective landlords using technology that also protects their data.
Based in Kildare, RentDodo can be used by all the stakeholders in renting – tenants, landlords and even letting agents – and offers a suite of tools designed to make the application process smoother and more secure.
“The idea behind RentDodo came together during 2021. For many years before this I had experience as both a tenant and a landlord. It amazed me that so much of the rental application process was still done manually,” McGarry explains.
“Given the current lack of rental accommodation, tenants were having an awful time endlessly applying to rental ads and sharing sensitive information by email. RentDodo was inspired by the need for a more efficient, secure and bias-free rental process for all users involved in the rental application process.”
Before entering the prop-tech market in the middle of the pandemic, McGarry spent many years in finance and property during the Celtic Tiger period soon after his degree at UCD. His most recent role before entering the world of entrepreneurship was as business development manager at Franchise Direct, a lead generation service for franchisers.
During his nine years at the Atlanta-based company, McGarry was responsible for establishing the business’ dominance in the US and making it a leader in franchise sales globally.
Open banking and future plans
Now, RentDodo has his undivided attention as he leads the company as CEO to make renting “as straightforward” as online shopping and establish a “new, fairer industry standard” for the rental application process in Ireland.
“RentDodo’s core feature TenantCert [a feature that allows tenants to securely upload and share their pre-letting information] has been used by over 1,500 tenants to date,” McGarry says.
“Our landlord ID verification is also live, and we are about to launch another exciting feature to help rental eliminate scammers. We’re currently a team of six, this will grow during 2024 as we expand our marketing activities and grow our user base.”
Other than ID verification, the fully web-based platform also offers open banking to verify a rental applicant’s income, so they no longer must share payslips or bank statements with landlords or letting agents. “We’re the first in Ireland to do this,” he adds.
With an aim raise funding later this year, McGarry believes RentDodo has been off to a good start – helped by good timing.
“Ireland is a great place to start a new business,” he says. “This has become even better with the recent rise in the work from home culture – it’s now much easier to find the right skills to grow your business without having to be located in a particular county or city.”
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