レンティオ

レンティオ (Rentio Inc.) is a Tokyo-based company that operates Rentio, an online rental and "try before you buy" service for cameras, home appliances, gadgets and baby products. Founded in April 2015 as 株式会社カンパニー and renamed レンティオ株式会社 in January 2016, the company is led by representative director Kenjiro Miwa, a former Rakuten employee who worked on mobile Rakuten Ichiba and as an EC consultant before moving to an EC venture and founding the business. The service launched in 2015 with short-term (three-night, four-day) rentals of about 50 product types and expanded to more than 2,900 product types and over 96,000 units of inventory by late 2021.

Rentio offers both fixed-period one-shot rentals and monthly subscription plans, with options to purchase a rented item outright or to keep it after a set rental period ("もらえるレンタル"). Delivery is nationwide with free shipping, and returns are simplified by including prepaid cash-on-delivery slips and packing tape so items can be returned via convenience stores. Alongside the rental marketplace the company runs Rentio PRESS, an information site covering cameras, appliances and gadgets, and has offered Saveclip, a wearable life-log camera. The stated mission is "新しい消費行動をつくる" (creating new consumption behaviour).

The company's positioning shifted from a camera-rental specialist to a home-appliance trial platform. Cameras accounted for more than 70% of GMV as of November 2019 and about 80% of sales before the pandemic, but fell below 20% by late 2021 as large-appliance trial demand grew; total GMV nonetheless grew to roughly four times the November 2019 level. Manufacturer relationships deepened in parallel: direct procurement from manufacturers rose from about 30% of inventory purchased in November 2019 to roughly 80% in September 2021, and consigned manufacturer inventory rose from about 5% to about 40% over the same period.

Founding story

Kenjiro Miwa joined Rakuten in 2008, working on the mobile version of Rakuten Ichiba and later as an EC consultant for the kitchen and household goods category, then moved to an EC venture. While working at companies handling consumer electronics e-commerce, he encountered frequent customer requests to rent appliances and observed that for items used only occasionally — camcorders, strollers and similar — consumers faced a binary choice between buying and going without. A personal experience of renting a lion-dance costume for a friend's wedding performance for JPY 20,000 rather than buying it for JPY 30,000 underlined the demand for a middle option. After his employer ceased operations, he founded 株式会社カンパニー in April 2015 to build a consumer rental service positioned between purchase and abstention; the company was renamed レンティオ株式会社 in January 2016.

Business model

The company buys or takes consignment of cameras and consumer electronics and rents them to consumers online, either as fixed-term one-shot rentals or monthly subscriptions, with options for the renter to buy the item or acquire ownership after a set period. Miwa describes rental economics as capital-intensive and close to finance: an item bought for JPY 100,000 and rented for JPY 10,000 becomes profitable from the eleventh rental, so cash flow depends heavily on inventory funding and utilisation, which the company keeps at roughly 90%. Consigned manufacturer inventory is operated on a revenue-share basis in which sales are returned to the manufacturer and Rentio takes a fee, improving cash flow relative to owned stock.

Revenue comes from rental fees on one-shot and monthly-subscription rentals, sales of rented items to customers who choose to buy, and commissions/revenue share on inventory consigned by manufacturers. The company also operates the Rentio PRESS media site.

Traction

Cumulative orders exceeded 200,000 as of end-January 2020 and 518,000 as of end-November 2020; StartupDB cites over 500,000 cumulative orders and 80,000 units of inventory as of end-September 2021. Catalogue grew from about 1,500 product types and 10,000 units (early 2020) to more than 2,900 types and 96,000 units (late 2021). Total GMV reached roughly four times the November 2019 level despite camera-category GMV falling about 80% year on year in May 2020; overall transaction volume roughly doubled year on year during the pandemic period. NPS reached 27% as of late 2021. The company has targeted JPY 10 billion in GMV at an early stage.

Latest developments

In September 2025 the company partnered with Packcity Japan to open a limited-period delivery-locker rental point at Shin-Yokohama PUDO, began Mynumber card authentication for users, and agreed with あたらしいインターネット to handle a wearable life-log camera due for release in spring 2026. Earlier partnerships include SWALLOW (October 2024) for subscription supply of the ZERO9 Lite electric kickboard. In March 2026 it started a trial providing free loans at accommodation facilities, in April 2026 it brought security-camera rental operator ヒイヅル into its group, in July 2026 it opened its first arena-based store at Pia Arena MM, and in July 2026 it took first place overall in the GMO customer satisfaction ranking for furniture and appliance rental.