RentoMojo: On a short lease?

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Editor's note: RentoMojo hasn’t been faring well.  In a world that has been beaten down by the coronavirus outbreak and in which the economy is as uncertain as the pandemic itself, a general assumption would be that the time is ripe for rental businesses. Professionals reeling from pay cuts and job losses and businesses navigating new consumer preferences may not be willing to bet on real estate, automobiles, expensive furniture or even appliances. Investors should be forming a beeline to gamble on the future of rental companies. That is not the case. For about a year and a half now, Bengaluru-based RentoMojo has been trying to raise money, but outside small tranches and debt capital, it has found funds hard to come by. A big funding round failed to materialize because of the pandemic. Meanwhile, the company has been battling on multiple fronts. There has been a slump in revenue and multiple rounds of layoffs amid a cash crunch. According to two company executives, one former and one current, barring some key functions such as logistics and support, headcounts have been reduced …