The beautiful island of Kish, with its beautiful beaches and blue sea, has always been an attractive destination for domestic and foreign tourists. These days, when the tourism industry is struggling with problems due to the corona pandemic, some of the hardworking youth of the country are thinking of economic prosperity in this beautiful island with creative ideas.
Amirhossein Fouladgar, CEO and founder Rentifa startup, who came up with the idea of this startup in 2019, chose Kish Azad Zone to implement this project, because “car rental” is customary in this island. In this regard, he got acquainted with the Kish Innovation Center and introduced the idea to them. At the end of 99, when the work was completed; The site and application were launched and entered the testing phase.
Meanwhile, with pass collection met and received an initial capital amount for 4 months. In April, basic knowledge license and economic activity license in Kish were obtained for Rentifa, and the site was launched in mid-May. Rentifa is currently in its fourth month of operation, read Ecomotive’s interview with Amir Hossein Fouladgar below:
How did you come up with the idea of Rentifa?
My friend Sahand, who is also one of the co-founders of Rentifast, and I went to Kish several times and there we realized the existence of the concern of “car rental” and that there are many problems in the field of car rental, so that when we decided to rent a car ourselves, we did not even We knew where to go; On the other hand, we did not have all the cars available to compare cars and their prices.
We didn’t even know which one Company is valid; Because there are different people in this field, some of them are companies and some are individuals who don’t even have a license; Even corporate ones sometimes don’t follow the rules. For these reasons, we found the place of such a startup empty in the ecosystem.
What rules are often ignored by companies in this field?
In the dominant cult, jobs are unionized; In the field of car rental, there is also a union called “Kish Renters’ Association” which supervises the activities of the companies; This union exists only in Kish and not in other cities. The union supervises activities and licenses. Companies that operate in the field of car rental must have at least 10 healthy cars for rent in order to get a rent book.
On the other hand, when the passenger intends to rent a car, he must pay a deposit as well as a traffic fine, which is concluded in the form of a contract between the rental company and the passenger; The deposit amount is returned to the passenger when the car is returned, but the fine amount must be returned within 10 days to one month because the violations are not up to date; Therefore, sometimes there is a problem in returning these amounts, although the number of companies that do not settle on time is very small.
Renting a car from people who operate illegally is also quite a risk. Another thing is the technical health of the car, for example, the car must have a healthy air conditioner. Another issue is the timely delivery of the car; Because passengers need to deliver the car on time when they arrive at the airport. All these issues are challenges that some companies do not do well. Rentifa solves all these challenges and guarantees reservations.
What values does Rentifa Reserve Guarantee offer?
The guarantee of the reservation is that the amount paid by the passenger as a deposit is returned immediately after the delivery of the car, and if there is a problem, the problem will be solved quickly by Rentifa support; The amount of the fine is the same.
On the site, it is possible that the passenger can choose any address for the delivery and return of the car, and all deliveries are made on the spot, while most of the companies ask the passengers to go to their place for the delivery of the car. do
There is a rule that “the passenger must return the car as received”, for example if the car gets dirty, the passenger must also pay for the car wash, but this rule does not exist in Rentifa.
Another value is the topic of the customer club; Those who rent a car from us once can use the “customer club discount” in the next times (depending on the amount of reservation). In this regard, if a person reaches 10 days, he will be given one day of free rent.
In another case, if the customer’s car has a technical problem, we will immediately replace it with a similar car or even a better car at no additional cost. After booking, we survey the customer and so far we have had 100% satisfaction from the customers. This survey helps to gain the passenger’s confidence and that we control the performance of the companies, and the companies that have better quality will be awarded more cars.
All surveys are displayed on the site for customers, and customers can rent a car based on the surveys. These issues have created a competitive market that did not exist in the businesses of this field until today. Even companies compete in pricing and prices are adjusted. On the other hand, due to the extensive advertising that we have in the country, people who have never rented a car are interested in renting a car and this leads to the expansion of this market.
We chose Kish as a pilot to start the business, we also launched our business in Qeshm and it will be launched in Tehran soon, and we plan to target the whole country for this issue. The license we have is a “Vehicle Rental” license and it is not only related to car rental, that’s why other vehicles will be added by the end of the year including: electric motorcycle rental, yachts, bicycles, vans, limousines and Even a private jet.
What potential is there in the free zone?
Since “Kish” is different from other free zones in terms of laws, culture, etc., I can only say in relation to Kish that it has a high potential for launching startups that turn traditional activities into online platforms. Including what we did. Most of the companies turn to free zones due to the lack of tax exemptions. This feature has practically disappeared this year with the addition of “value added” rules for free zones, and even this issue has created problems for car rental companies.
Because the value added tax exemption was considered a great advantage, now this attraction has disappeared and for a company like us, which has a knowledge-based license and is also located in the science and technology park, and our absence in Kish does not make much difference. Our business can grow well now only because of the high number of car rental companies, and that is the only reason why we settled here. Otherwise, we would not have chosen Kish because the costs are too high and even the VAT exemption is not attractive anymore.
How did you find out about the opportunities in Kish?
The issue of tax exemption for free zones has been advertised in the media for years. On the other hand, our familiarity with Kish was due to the trips we had there, and I had a startup in the field of tourism in Kish before, and for this reason, we chose Kish.
Apart from Passage Accelerator, what groups support Rentifa startups?
In the beginning, due to the fact that the Kish Innovation Center had just been launched and we were among the first startups established in this complex, and since our pilot business is specific to the island of Kish and has a lot of demand, the center also supported us. The support was spiritual; Although we had many requests for financial support, both the organization and the relevant bodies still did not support us, and in my opinion, there is a strong need to support startups like us that solve the problems of travelers and people. .
Why did you become a knowledge base and what process did you go through in this direction?
Due to the fact that we already had another knowledge-based product and we knew the process of making it complete, it did not take much time for Rentifa to become knowledge-based and within a month it was knowledge-based. The reason for its knowledge base was the issues of innovation and complexities that existed in the design and programming of the platform and the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for marketing automation.
What are Rentifa’s competitors on the island?
Considering that Rentifa is the first car rental market police platform in the country, a business under the name of this model has not yet been launched, but there are sites that car rental companies themselves have created, and we have no objection to these sites. Because it makes this market develop, and on the other hand, the existence of such sites is not considered a competition for us.
What challenges have you faced on the island?
Since the island is so small and everyone knows each other and the unions are so strong, relationships are more than rules; When a business is launched that did not exist before and they do not have relationships, they face many positions. In the beginning, we tried to strengthen the relations and advance the work in such a way that we did not give an excuse to anyone, so we got all the permits from the beginning; We even have licenses that most companies don’t have.
We got the first license related to this platform in the island, which did not exist before; The title of our license is “Vehicle Rental Shared Platform”. In order to get this license, we were annoyed because no company had received this license before, and we had to have meetings with the officials of different Kish bodies, and this issue took us 2 months, and one of the big That was our biggest challenge.
The next issue was the misrepresentation of the union that they thought we were going to compete with them, and finally, through discussions, they realized that our business is somehow complementary to the business of the union, and this changed their position. Another challenge is the high costs in Kish, and if a company that is set up in Kish does not attract capital, it will definitely face problems.
What are your plans for business and team development?
We are negotiating with different investors to raise funds to expand our team after raising funds. In the field of business development, since we are currently active in Kish, we plan to enter other cities and free zones, and we will probably expand the platform to other countries at the end of the year.
Has the Kish tourism market changed despite the corona pandemic?
The tourism market of Kish has a completely sinusoidal movement, it has high and low points that are constantly changing. Currently, due to Corona, there are fewer tourists, but on the other hand, due to the high cost of traveling abroad, the number of tourists in Kish has increased compared to before. Because the island has many attractions of foreign countries, such as hotels and luxury cars, sea entertainment, etc.
Currently, the island’s businesses are closed due to the peak of the Corona virus, but since the vaccination has started on the island (unlike inside the country, which has not yet happened), it remains separate like a country and has independent management; Because it is under the supervision of the Kish Free Zone Organization, that’s why they are more agile in making decisions.
This makes the problems to be solved faster and in general it has a wide market for the field of tourism; But our plan in Kish Island is only for the first 6 months and we think it is a good place to start a business, but if a business has a better market inside the country, I do not recommend the island to startups.
Does Kish Island or free zones create an advantage for businesses that want to enter the international market?
It doesn’t make any difference, unless they have a lot of traffic to other countries or meetings with foreign guests, it is easier in Kish, because the visa is issued at the airport; But for other online businesses, it does not have much advantage, and I think the biggest potential of the island is its tourism, and its international features are not so impressive, but it will happen in the future.
Is production infrastructure (such as hardware production) available on the island?
Due to the fact that Kish Island does not have land traffic, the issue of logistics and supply of raw materials is a big challenge, and if a company does not have these two problems, it can get support from the Free Zone Organization, but otherwise it will face serious challenges.
Is the license for “economic activities in Kish” an additional license to the licenses required in the mainland?
There is no such thing as a “business license” on the island, and instead, businesses must have an economic activity permit from the Kish Free Zone Organization, which is more difficult to obtain than a business license.
As the last question that expresses many concerns, do you think Kish Island or the mainland is more agile in terms of bureaucracy?
This issue depends on the type of your business, because most of the businesses on the island are unionized and the unions are strong and your interactions with the unions are very important. In general, the organizations that are inside the country, such as the Social Security Organization, the Tax Affairs Organization, etc., also exist in Kish, and in this sense, it is not much different, but due to the seclusion of the organizations and offices and the ease of transportation, a little in this field. It is more agile than the mainland.
