She had a stable high-paying job. She paid her rent on time, every single month. Her CIBIL score was solid. And yet — the bank said no.
That rejection didn’t just sting. It revealed a flaw so deep in India’s financial system that Sarika Shetty quit her corporate career to fix it.
The result? RentenPe — India’s first startup turning rent payments into a pathway to homeownership.
The Rejection That Sparked a Revolution
Sarika Shetty was working as the head of a luxury auto dealership in Mumbai and living on rent. But while she had a stable income and paid rent and EMIs on time, her application for a home loan was rejected, citing “overexposure to credit.”
The bank’s solution was simple: pay off one of your car loans first. Then we’ll talk.
But Sarika’s argument was equally simple — and far more logical. The money she spent on rent every month could easily fund a home loan EMI. She was already demonstrating financial discipline through consistent rent payments. The bank just had no way to see it.
That led her to identify a significant gap in India’s financial ecosystem — the complete absence of rent in credit evaluations.
For most Indians, rent is their biggest monthly expense. And it counts for absolutely nothing on their credit profile. That was the problem. And Sarika decided to solve it.
Who Is Sarika Shetty? From BMW to Fintech Disruptor
Before RentenPe, Sarika had built an impressive corporate career.
Sarika Shetty served as Vice President, Sales & Marketing at BMW, where she oversaw sales operations and marketing initiatives within the luxury automotive sector, driving revenue generation and implementing market strategies to enhance brand presence. She holds a Master of Business Administration from Golden Gate University.
Leaving a VP role at BMW to build a fintech startup from scratch is a high-stakes bet. But Sarika had done her homework.
She initiated a study with Ernst & Young — Parthenon, conducting surveys on financial institutions, landlords, tenants and brokers before writing a single line of code or building a single feature.
The research confirmed what she already knew from personal experience: the system was broken, and millions of Indians were paying the price.
What Is RentenPe — and How Does It Work?
In 2022, Sarika co-founded RentenPe in Mumbai with a clear mission: turn rent payments into financial power.
The platform introduced two breakthrough products that have no direct precedent in India:
R Score™ — India’s First Rent Credit Score
RentenPe introduced India’s first Rent Credit Score — R Score™ — which enables tenants to build a credit profile based on their rent payment history.
When a tenant pays rent through the RentenPe app timely and consistently, completes KYC, uploads other details and stays engaged on the app, it builds and improves their R Score™. Once tenants increase their R Score™ from the base score of 650 to the highest score of 790, they get access to pre-approved home loans — completing their journey from tenants to homeowners.
R Card™ — The Digital Rental Passport
Central to RentenPe’s offering is the Residence Card — a digital rental passport that stores verified ID proofs, rent payment history and the R Score.
R Safety offers a comprehensive suite of services like court record checks, hometown verification and instant ID verification, resulting in complete screening of the tenant’s profile without any hassle.
Think of it as a portable trust profile — a tenant simply shows their R Card to a new landlord or a bank, and their entire rental credibility history is right there in one place.
The Problem Is Massive — The Numbers Prove It
This isn’t a niche issue. This is a crisis affecting hundreds of millions of Indians.
Over 275 million middle-class Indians and around 40 million upper-middle-class Indians live in rented homes. Rent is often the single largest monthly expense, eating up nearly 30% of income in Tier-1 cities. Yet traditional credit systems like CIBIL completely ignore it. Only EMIs and credit card payments count.
With nearly 50% of India’s population under the age of 40, many young professionals relocate from smaller towns to major cities. These individuals often dedicate a substantial portion of their income — up to 30% — to rent, while aspiring to own a home, a symbol of status and security in Indian society. Despite the regularity and significance of these payments, they remain unacknowledged in traditional financial metrics.
The result? Millions of financially responsible Indians are locked out of the home loan system — not because they can’t pay, but because their payment history is invisible.
The Research-Backed Case for Change
RentenPe isn’t just making a moral argument. The evidence is on its side.
According to EY Parthenon research, structured rent repayment data over 18 to 24 months can be considered as an additional parameter for mortgage approvals. Some NBFCs and banks have already expressed that with over six months of verified rent payment data from RentenPe, they could implement a “rent pay pull” similar to traditional credit pulls when approving home loans.
Utilising rent payments as part of the credit system is in keeping with global developments — including former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supporting rent as a credit factor, and India’s own Model Tenancy Act of 2021, which accentuates the formalisation of rent practices.
India isn’t reinventing the wheel here. It’s catching up to a global shift that’s already underway.
What Tenants and Landlords Get
RentenPe isn’t just good for tenants. It redesigns the entire landlord-tenant relationship.
For Tenants: Tenants enjoy perks such as one month’s free rent, zero platform fees, and low credit card fees. Automated payment tracking, reminders, and rent receipts help tenants maintain a clean rental history while building their R Score™. Timely rent payments earn rewards like cashback, Gullak coins redeemable against future rent, discounts on initial payments, and gamified experiences.
For Landlords: Landlords benefit from streamlined rent collection, meticulous automated record-keeping, and simplified tax and accounting management, reducing errors and delays. Shared digital documentation fosters trust, minimises disputes, and enhances confidence for both parties.
RentenPe Today — Traction That Tells the Story
Today the platform connects 20,000+ tenants and 9,000 landlords, and processes over $1 million in rent every month.
RentenPe has raised a total funding of $1.65 million over 3 rounds from 10 investors, including institutional and angel backers.
A product built from a personal rejection — now processing crores of rent transactions monthly, with banks and NBFCs taking serious notice.
RentenPe at a Glance
| Detail | Info |
| Startup | RentenPe |
| Founded | 2022 |
| Founder & CEO | Sarika Shetty |
| Previous Role | VP Sales & Marketing, BMW |
| Headquartered | Mumbai / Bengaluru |
| Core Products | R Score™, R Card™, R Safety |
| Tenants on Platform | 20,000+ |
| Landlords on Platform | 9,000+ |
| Monthly Rent Processed | $1 Million+ |
| Total Funding Raised | $1.65 Million |
| Backed By | EY Parthenon Research |
| R Score Range | 650 (base) to 790 (pre-approved home loan) |
Why Every Delhi Renter Should Know This
If you’re one of the millions of Indians who pays rent every month and dreams of owning a home someday, RentenPe could be the most important fintech platform you’ve never heard of.
By turning rent payments into a powerful financial tool, RentenPe is not just launching a new product — it is revolutionising the rental landscape by making every rent count, and not treating it as an expense but as a step closer to owning a home.
Sarika Shetty was told no by a bank. She turned that no into a mission — and that mission is now helping thousands of renters across India say yes to their dream of homeownership.
