Insurtech Rhino has raised $95 million in a funding round led by investment firm Tiger Global Management.
The New York City-based company, which provides security deposit insurance, received this financing at a time when it plans to double its headcount to over 200 employees.
Rhino’s security deposit insurance acts as a replacement for a cash security deposit. Renters pay Rhino a monthly fee instead of providing an upfront cash deposit. The company insures the property owner for potential damages and lost rent. Rhino will use its recent funding to advocate for renter-friendly legislation and create new products.
In January 2019 the company had $4 million in contracted annual recurring revenue and has grown to $60 million in January 2021. Contracted ARR shows expected customer volume from buildings that Rhino has contracted with, TechCrunch reports. The company has tripled in size to 100 employees in the past 18 months, according to a press release, and has grown from 200,000 homes to more than 1 million homes.
“Security deposit insurance has already seen great success and is an industry poised for explosive growth,” Ankur Jain, Chairman at Rhino, said in a prepared statement. “This funding will allow us to take our product to even more renters, launch new products, and help make housing more affordable, which is especially crucial during the pandemic when this issue is front and center for so many Americans.”
The company was co-founded by major investor Kairos and works with both renters and landlords to replace the traditional security deposit model. Rhino was launched in 2017.
“Security deposit insurance is still in its early days, but we believe it will become an increasingly popular product for renters,” Scott Shleifer, Partner at Tiger Global Management, said in a prepared statement.
Tiger Global is no stranger to fintech investing. The $36 billion fund manager is also an investor in Blend, Qualia, Oscar, Current, and Root. Though it does appear that the investor has an aversion to companies with more than 7-characters or more than two syllables in the company name.