Indlu

To transform the African Urban landscape by enabling hundreds of thousands of micro landlords.

Backyard rooms are one of the largest housing sub-sectors in South Africa and make a significant contribution to the provision of rental housing to households whose needs are not addressed by government subsidy programs or the private market. Largely without any government intervention, the sector successfully provides accommodation to households wishing to rent but who cannot afford formal rental accommodation available. 25% of all South Africans now rent and informal rental markets create accommodation opportunities for almost two thirds of all households not able to access formal accommodation.

It is estimated that by 2025 an additional 187 million Africans will migrate to cities, drastically redefining urban trends and requirements.
Although a portion of this accommodation does not meet recognized housing standards, this sub-sector is one of the most successful, efficient accommodation delivery systems in Africa.

INDLU partners with land owners in African cities in order to help them build residential property rental businesses. INDLU supports these land owners with access to capital, systems and management & support services.
INDLU Living is a rental-housing app that connects homeowners in townships with potential tenants for their backyard rooms. Landowners that use the INDLU Living App also build a credit score with INDLU allowing them to access the capital required to upgrade their rental rooms and to expand their property portfolio.
The INDLU Living app is free to download and lets homeowners register their rooms on the app, which prospective tenants are then able to bid on. Payment then occurs through the app directly, or via pay-points located at nearby Shoprite and other selected stores.
INDLU loans are paid out of the increased rental income from the new and upgraded rental apartments. Loans are typically paid off over 5 years. The land owner then owns an asset that has considerably increased in value, rental income has increased significantly, and critically needed rental housing is provided to the community. 

Indlu believes that investing in women and providing women with access to capital is vital for communities and ultimately countries to succeed.
By increasing the income of women, a significant portion of that income is spent on the household. By increasing the income of a household you significantly increase the chance of the members of that household to succeed. Once women have independent sources of income, they are better able to participate in political processes.
Approximately 80% of existing Indlu clients are woman land owners.
Woman face a significant shortfall in access to capital and Indlu is proving that its model can help solve this problem. Other benefits: Building sustainable property businesses by providing them with access to capital without causing over-indebtedness and getting them cash flow positive from day one.
Empowerment of local builders by only sourcing labor from the surrounding community and by providing the opportunity for unskilled people to obtain in-job training.
Approximately 5% of rent given to a communal fund. The communal fund will provide funds to existing social initiatives with a focus on Early Childhood Development, education and safety initiatives.
Providing much needed housing to help address the immense housing shortage in South Africa

Indlu provides a new way for informal property businesses (land owners with backyard rental units) to gain access to capital. These land owners generally have no access to capital because they are not seen as credit worthy as they do not earn a salary, even though they generate consistent monthly income from their rental business. Indlu wants to
help these land owners expand their rental business by looking at the potential income these land owners can generate with better or additional assets. By being hands-on as well as being systems and data driven Indlu believes it can create a model to provide access to capital that is even safer to investors than traditional models.
With Indlu:
1.Land owners use the Indlu app to process rent of existing backyard rooms, proving they already have a running property business.
2.Land owners qualify to come into consideration for a loan. Loans are allocated towards upgrading or creation of formal income generating assets (Indlu units).
3.Loans are only repaid through a portion of the income generated by the newly developed income generating asset. The land owner is never cash flow negative.
4.After a 5 year period the loan is paid off and the land owner receives 100% of the income generated by the asset.

Competitors only provide unsecured personal loans against salaried income. This limmits them to a small portion of the backyard market. Indlu's technology allows us create an alternative credit score without salaried income by lending against the future income of the asset. Our systems and data as well as our first mover advantage provides our competitive advantage.

Technology is key to Indlu. We have three components to our systems: Indlu Living (rental app), Indlu Build (building management app) and Indlu Invest (Investment management)
Everything Indlu does is data driven. From construction to maintenance to rent collection is managed through software systems. Data is collected on all fronts and used to continuously improve the model.

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Indlu has invested close to $1000000 in woman land owners in the last 12 months and will invest a further $500,000 in women over the next 6 months. Completed Indlu units are already, on average, providing each of our clients with an additional $80 a month just from their Indlu unit. This will increase to over $1,000 a month once the building is paid off. For example, once an Indlu asset has been paid off it generates enough income to pay for a child's school and university fees, accommodation and living expenses.

Our top three goals for the next three years are:

1) Complete and luanch Indlu Invest (Indlu Living and Indlu Build are fully operational) .
2)Expand into two new areas.
3)Build an additional 200 rental units.

We do not have hard collateral against the loans.
WE USE POSITIVE SOCIAL PRESSURE AS COLLATERAL
Tenants build trust with Land Owners by using the Indlu App. The Land Owner/Tenant relationship that is facilitated by the App becomes the basis and validation of trust and accountability.
As Land Owners build a track record and qualify for loans, trust is built between Indlu and the Land Owner. As the amount of Indlu Land Owners increase within a certain community, Indlu becomes positively represented by Land Owners aspiring for an Indlu loan. This creates a common perception shared by the community at large that Indlu is contributing not only to individual Land Owners but to the community as well. This shared realisation is leveraged by Indlu to deter negative political pressure and Land Owners (future and existing) wanting to abuse the Indlu ecosystem.

Cobus Truter studied industrial engineering at the University of Pretoria.
He founded the EmpiriQ Group, athink-tank and incubator of scalable market driven socio economic development solutions focused on African cities.
The Indlu plan was formulated in 2008 but the lack of smartphone penetration in the South African townships hindered the implementation. Between 2008 and 2017 the work of the EmpiriQ team led to several Emerging Market-based projects in the housing,

Indlu operates in African "Townships" These are super dense urban growth nodes inside African Metros. Our 7 Key short term target areas are all situated in Gauteng, less than 1 hours drive from our head office in Pretoria.

Gauteng Province represents less than 1% of Africa in terms of population but represent between 5% and 10% in terms of GDP, making it the most influential and therefore strategic area on the continent.

Our 7 Key areas will give us a foothold in the most important market - often referred to as the door to Africa. These are:

Tembisa (Melana Shopping Centre)
Mamelodi
Vosloorus (Melana Shopping Centre)
Soshanguve (Melana Shopping Centre)
Alexandra
Diepsloot
Soweto

The Indlu team has been operating in Township areas in South Africa for close to 10 years. In addition to the development of Indlu units, the team has successfully developed two shopping centres of 82,000 sq. ft. and 105,500 sq. ft. respectively with a combined value of over $16.7M.

The team has also been involvement in various development efforts by local and foreign non-profit organizations. From the early days, the team has been steering the intricacies of developing projects that include a school grade K through 12, an entrepreneurial training center, care facilities for the elderly.

We where the winner of the People's Choice Award and overall first runnerup of the Nation Builder Social Innovation Challenge.

Indlu has three revenue streams:

1)5% transaction fee on all rental payments through the Indlu Living app
2)Interest on loans to land owners. At the moment we borrow at a WACC of 12% and lend it out at 17,5% (We are trying to bring both down)
3. We charge a 18% development fee on all buildings build through our Indlu Build system.

We currently raise private equity through special purpose vehicles. We are progressing well on comercial dept financing solutions

If selected as a Solver, we would use the resources to invest in our technology by expanding our team.
We currently need:
2 Testers
2 Mobile App Developers (Android\iOS)
1 UX\UI\Graphics\Web Designer
1 Backend Developer
1 Business Analyst