Circa Raises $2 Million to Allow Flexible Rent Payments

Circa Raises $2 Million to Allow Flexible Rent Payments

Circa Co-founder and CEO Leslie Hyman, identified several pain points when it comes to paying rent in the US.

• Over $15 billion in rent is paid late every month.
• 30% of rent payments are paid after the 5th of the month
• 15% or 5.9 million renters are behind in rent payments
• Eviction cost anywhere between $3000 to $10,000 for the owners
• Cost recovery on evictions only have a 17% success rate

With all these problems stemming from late rent, Circa was formed to eliminate the issue of late rent, before it becomes an issue. Circa offer a software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, that allows renters to setup an account and chose their payment method. There are options to make full or partial payments and can be changed anytime. 

The way Circa makes money is two fold. Firstly, it charges $1 monthly platform usage fee to the property owners and charges renters only when they do flexible payment plans. As a possible scenario, if the rent is say $1000 / mon, and the renter chooses flexible payment, then they pay $15 to set up the payment schedule. Of the $15, 50-50 revenue share is done between Circa and the property owner. Circa offers other services as well, such as credit reporting and takes over the property’s arrears management. 

Circa target market is properties between 1,000 and 10,000 units and currently has 1,000 units under management in the Northeast, Pennsylvania and in Sun Valley. To mature this business further, Circa has $2 million in funding to expand on type of properties it can manage.