Sydney’s new TechStars accelerator backs events rental startup Gecko in $350,000 pre-Seed round

Event rental e-commerce platform Gecko has raised $350,000 in a pre-Seed round led by the NSW government-backed Techstars program in Sydney.

Gecko is one of 12 startups selected for the inaugural Techstars Tech Central accelerator program, which got underway earlier this month.

US investors Goodwater Capital and Launch House also backed the startups pre-Seed raise.  

The inspiration for Gecko came when cofounder Ben Kennedy was working for his mother’s wedding venue and deal with the frustrations and challenges of renting event equipment. He set out to simplify the process as well as enhancing the profitability of the rental companies involved, developing a rental software platform that delivers bookings in a fraction of the time of a traditionally paper-based industry. 

The ecommerce site also has additional features such as cross-selling, referrals and rebooking giving rental companies the ability to increase their revenue potential by up to 50%. 

Kennedy said time is a critical factor in event planning planning, but not a priority on the rental side. 

“Events are stressful, the whole process of renting made it so much more painful,” he said

“You’d ring up rental businesses and when you finally got a hold of them they’d ask you to send them an email where they’d get back to you 2-5 days later.”

Alongside cofounders Lal Birch, and Cody Fisher-Peel, they launched the product as a peer-to-peer marketplace, before seeing the greater potential in collaborating with rental businesses to improve the customer experience. 

Gecko now has a network of over 120 rental businesses on its platform, including Vibes AV & DJ Hire, with operator Oscar Jamieson saying it has streamlined administrative tasks and increased revenue by 50% in the six months since they began using it

“The best part about working with Gecko has been the unparalleled customer service we have received. The team listens to our feedback and worked with us to tailor the platform to suit our business needs,” he said

The Gecko team trio say they play to use the funds to expand into other categories in the near future.

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