In 2014 when FINN Torget (FINN Marketplace) became free to use, Norway’s classifieds giant experienced an incredible growth in the number of ads published. Despite the fact that FINN Torget is a marketplace created for buying and selling, a fair amount of people started publishing items for rent.
“We realized that there was a need in the market not covered by FINNs platform,” says Trygve Leite.
Through FINN’s innovation incubator “Sandbox”, employees with an idea for a new commercial concept can get access to infrastructure and money for marketing, in exchange for a 30 percent ownership in the startup company.
Five employees took this great opportunity and got together to work on a service they called Plendit – People Lend It. After a year of working night and day, they launched Plendit.no. Plendit is an online marketplace aimed at the rental market, which allows individuals and companies to list, find, and rent almost anything, be it a vehicle, a boat, an apartment or a party tent.
Insurance is key
The main goal was to make renting a safe and enjoyable experience. In order to assure this, Plendit secured an insurance deal with the insurance company If Skadeforsikring, which covers pretty much everything you could imagine renting out.
Everybody in Plendit have been with FINN for five years or longer and naturally know a lot about how a marketplace is put together. This has given them the opportunity to pick the best qualities from FINN and mix these with similar features from other sharing services, such as profile ratings and geo search.
“Plendit has been built to scale globally from day one and the insurance deal covers usage in Scandinavia, witch gives us the opportunity to take it beyond Norway,” Trygve explains.
Sandbox for great ideas
As of today, four companies have signed a Sandbox contract. Plendit is, according to CEO Sondre Gravir in FINN one of the companies that has gained most traction.
“The idea behind Sandbox is to give entrepreneurs help and support to bring into life their ideas. If the concept is a success and meets the users’ needs, FINN has the possibility to become part-owner in the company.”
Plendit is not a part of the FINN brand and FINN has no responsibility for the quality or content of the service.
Click to read more about Plendit in Dagens Næringsliv.