t to launch on October 1, and has attracted support from the likes of MyDeal chair Paul Greenberg, who is an angel investor, and Afterpay exec Rachel Kelly and former Qantas CTO Rob James, who are serving on advisory boards.

ReleaseIt is hoping to onboard major rental businesses, such as Kennards, Radio Rentals and GlamCorner, as well as small businesses hit by Covid that are looking to rent out their inventory as a secondary revenue stream. It’s also targeting individuals who currently rent out their cars, tools and fashion on peer-to-peer sites, such as Airtasker. 

“When you look at traditional peer-to-peer models, they’re quite vertically inclined — you rent cars or tools — our model is the opposite,” Krideras told Inside Retail. 

“There’s no limit of categories that could be available on our site.”

Time’s up on overconsumption

The concept of an online marketplace dedicated to the rental market is a world-first, according to Krideras. Given the size of the rental market — worth over $8 billion in Australia — he believes it’s a massive missed opportunity. 

“No-one has actually embraced the rental industry. It deserves to be serviced by a marketplace,” he said.

Krideras should know. He spent over 11 years as the general manager of marketing and merchandise at Radio Rentals from 1998 to 2009. 

As a marketplace, ReleaseIt promises to drive additional traffic to traditional rental businesses, the way Amazon and eBay do for the brands and sellers on their sites. Crucially, Krideras believes it will also introduce them to a new type of rental customer. 

“What we’re trying to create is an ecosystem around sustainable businesses, and some of them may not even be aware that they’re in the sustainable space,” he said. 

In the past, rental businesses primarily catered to people who couldn’t afford to buy a new refrigerator or television, or didn’t need one long-term. Today, younger consumers are turning to rentals to reduce their carbon footprint. 

“By 2024, the [millennial and gen Z] demographic is going to be the number one shopper in retail, and unless businesses embrace this shopper and how they want to shop, a lot of them are going to be left behind,” Krideras said.

According to market research conducted by ReleaseIt, some of the most common items people are prepared to rent or rent out include cars, apparel, party decorations and supplies, home office equipment, such as monitors, and other electronics like a PS5. 

“This new generation is just desperate to live a lower waste lifestyle. We’re very conscious of our environmental footprint in a way that other generations haven’t been,” Kate Hall, ReleaseIt’s marketplace strategy manager, told Inside Retail. 

“This crazy overconsumption happening globally and mass waste…time’s up. We’re seeing that with all the student rallies against climate change, so I think ReleaseIt is tapping into that really strong movement.”

How it works

With such a wide range of products being targeted, the length of each rental and how it is delivered will vary on ReleaseIt. A customer might rent a dress for a single weekend and expect the retailer or owner to send it by post, while someone renting a lawn mower will probably be limited to picking it up in their local area. 

Krideras said ReleaseIt is focusing on rentals of under four months. The platform has a robust messaging system that will allow customers to organise the logistics of picking up and returning products themselves, but this might change in future. 

“Logistics is going to be a very important part of our business, but we don’t want to launch with a solid logistics solution until we actually understand what the key issues are,” he said.

In terms of generating revenue, ReleaseIt plans to take a cut of peer-to-peer transactions at the checkout, while established businesses will pay for the traffic they receive on a cost-per-click basis.

“It’s a low to no risk model because if we don’t send you traffic, you don’t pay anything. But especially for some of these traditional brands, we will be sending them a new demographic as our marketing will be geared to this new audience that they’re not really focused on,” he said.

In addition to Greenberg, the platform has received investment from Hugo Dudley-Smith, a managing director at the advisory and funds management business Gresham. Sandradee Makejev, the founder and CEO of online women’s fashion business St Frock, and Michael Laps, founder of digital marketing agency Yogurt Digital, are also serving on the business’ advisory boards.