Listen to this articleFat Lama is the first insured peer-to-peer rental marketplace for ‘stuff’. The website (which will shortly be available in app-form!) allows users to rent out their seldom-used equipment. By extension, it gives ‘borrowers’ cheap, convenient, short-term access to what they need. Fat Lama is the first platform of its kind to offer lenders insurance for the items they rent out through the platform, thanks to a Guarantee is underwritten by XL Catlin. Below is our interview with Tim Slater, PR & Content Manager at Fat Lama:
Q: You’ve recently announced $1.5 Million in Seed funding round. Where will the funds be going?
A: The round was led by Greylock Partners, Paul Buchheit (Gmail) and Justin Waldron (Zynga). The raise itself came off the back of our time on Y Combinator last summer (2017). The money will be going towards accelerating our growth throughout the UK, with an initial focus on Bath, Bristol, Birmingham Edinburgh and Manchester. Beyond the UK, we’ll be beginning our American rollout in New York – a city full of creative professionals who we believe will benefit significantly from the ability to safely and simply monetise their underused gear.
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Q: What kinds of items someone can lend/borrow with Fat Lama?
A: Just about anything, really! Tents, bikes, VR headsets, VW campervans, event lighting, furniture… Film and photography gear is also popular, as well as projectors, DJ equipment, PA systems etc. As a general rule, we’re talking about items which are too costly to warrant purchasing by those who may only use them once, or a handful of times.
The categories in which demand has initially grown are such that a lot of creative professionals are really benefitting from the ability to earn money on the equipment they’re not using 100% of the time. DJs, event managers, filmmakers, photographers and more are enjoying cheap access to industry-standard gear and are also earning a significant income by renting out kit of their own.
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Q: Tell us something about smart pricing concept, how does it work?
A: Sure – our Smart Pricing feature is designed to produce fair and mutually beneficial daily rates for any possible rental duration. It optimises listing prices so that longer rentals are charged at a cheaper daily rate. It works on an algorithm which takes the given Daily and Weekly prices for an item (as well as category-specific data and suggests a Monthly Price and then draws a ‘magic’ curve between all three. For borrowers, this means making significant savings on longer term rentals. For lenders, it means an overall higher lender income.
Last Updated on January 27, 2018
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