How Yobota helped power the reinvention of the rental deposit market.

For the millions of tenants across the UK, the costs associated with renting a property can be sizeable. That’s before you even consider the significant upfront costs involved in settling tenancy deposits.

With many adults lacking the savings to front up potentially thousands of pounds when moving rental property, Yobota recently partnered with a neo-lender that had an ingenious solution to the problem.

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Once a loan is agreed, the fintech sends the money directly to the estate agent, enabling customers to pay back the amount in manageable chunks and spread the cost over as many as 12 months. It is a revolutionary financial product that offers a cheaper and lower-risk option than alternatives such as credit cards, payday loans and overdrafts.

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We are proud to be the engine powering this valuable new tool for renters. So, to celebrate this partnership, here’s an insight into just how Yobota was able to deliver a system that ticks all the right boxes for Fronted and its customers.

Cloud is at the core

When Fronted’s founders approached us, they had a vision of creating a unique offering that wasn’t already available on the market – not a variation of an existing product, but an entirely new proposition. Typically, such an endeavour would involve complicated, lengthy, and not to mention costly development timelines.

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That’s where Yobota changes the game.

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We empower promising fintechs to build their niche by taking care of the technical service and allowing our clients to focus on their business. This is made possible by the cloud-native core banking platform that sits at the heart of our offering, which gives businesses the agility they need to identify a problem, and quickly bring an innovative solution to market. Yobota’s modular architecture and flexible core meant that Fronted could pick and choose the functionality they needed, and mould it to suit their target demographic.

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Meanwhile, in a sector where time is of the essence, Fronted needed robust technology that could quickly assess applications to offer a quote in principle, conduct identity and credit checks, and deliver a loan in good time to guarantee that customers did not lose out on their dream property.

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Yobota’s flexible architecture meant that complicated operations and workflows could be fully automated, limiting the need for manual admin and unnecessary human interaction, and ultimately make complex processes smoother and faster for customers.

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Armed with best-in-class technology, Fronted can issue thousands of quotes an hour and disperse loans at almost the same rate – an impressive feat given the antiquated processes that have traditionally plagued the lending market. We provided integrated access to Fronted’s payment partners and automated payments management to make this process as intuitive and seamless as possible.

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Naturally, a high-quality user experience (UX) was also crucial. Our clean API integration put Fronted in full control of building its UX and delivering a customised experience. To help determine what the business’ customers need, our suite of reporting APIs offers a clear insight into their behaviour, giving Fronted the necessary information to adjust its offering.

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Most importantly, we give Fronted the freedom to take the reins and develop new products on top of our core banking platform, without waiting for our IT team to build them. With the ability to make tweaks, we ensure Fronted can continue to improve its products and respond to changes in the market without having to resort to us (although naturally, we are on hand to offer continued support where needed!).

From zero to hero

Some businesses might be hesitant about creating a unique offering, for fear of the development costs and timeframes involved. Luckily, we have an answer for this too.

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The beauty of our modular architecture and flexible core means that we took the Fronted Deposit to production-ready in just six months.

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Fast deployment was a key factor in Fronted’s choice to partner with us as its technology vendor, and we’re proud to have gotten this valuable tool up and running so quickly to give renters better options, particularly during this extended period of Covid-19 uncertainty.

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Don’t just take our word for it. Here’s what Jamie Campbell, Co-founder and CEO of Fronted had to say…

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“Fronted was created to help renters move more easily and reduce their upfront costs. A flexible and reliable technology partner was needed to support this ambition, and to provide the underlying technology required to simplify the upfront rental deposit issue.  

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“The flexibility offered by Yobota’s architecture enabled us to create an innovative and tech-driven solution to a long-standing problem in the UK rental market. By utilising Yobota’s APIs, we were able to build a customised user experience that reduces the time and complexity involved in applying for a rent deposit.”