BigRentz is an American equipment rental firm based in California. Their 1600+ rental partners and 8000+ partner locations make up the nation’s largest equipment rental network which makes the sourcing and logistics of obtaining construction equipment much easier. The firm offers heavy equipment rental services to customers via its online portal. Bigrentz has changed the old-school method of renting construction equipment.
Today, in this article, we’ll be diving deep into the Bigrentz business model and attain our answers to the most asked questions- “How does Brigrentz work?” and “How does Brigrentz make money?”. So, without any further delay, let’s get started by firstly understanding its business model.
Bigrentz- The Beginning
Dallas Imbimbo, a gifted entrepreneur, was surrounded by great businessmen from his early childhood. By the age of 12, he had his own business.
While he was still in college at the University of California-Davis, he ventured into Pack My Dorm. This was a platform for connecting moving firms with students moving in and out of their dorms. He sold this company to one of his regional moving and storage companies after running it for a while. Currently, this particular business is based in Orange Country, where he is working to revolutionize the game in the equipment rental industry with his latest venture, BigRentz. This is the place where he met his business partner Stephen Jesson who pointed out that no one was renting heavy equipment online. On which his first reaction was – “Let’s Do It.”
Soon with the support of his old friend and high school basketball teammate, Nick Kovacevich, the trio purchased domains such as forkliftrental.com, scissorliftrental.com, discountliftrental.com, and many more to step into the online equipment rental market.
They confirmed their concept by filling rental orders with local companies during the following year. When they started earning national-level contracts with the top rental businesses, they felt they were onto something big.
Imbimbo worked quickly to scale the firm. The domains and business units were merged into what is now known as BigRentz. More than two years after its founding, the company hired its first engineer in 2014 to begin developing the technology required for scalability.
BigRentz- After launch (Future Plans included)
BigRentz is now operating in North America, with projects to expand into new markets shortly. In addition, the team wants to build efficiencies wherever possible and reach escape velocity before any new competitors enter the market and offer tough competition.
The company is currently in a very good position. It has provided equipment to the World Series for the past four years and captures a big portion of re-renting from the major participants. Even if the equipment suppliers of Bigrentz run out of stock, they are ready to assist them in fulfilling their orders.
To competently scale the business, BigRentz has grown to 90 personnel, which once started with 25 employees working in engineering and development. Year-over-year growth has been achieved, and BigRentz has been ranked #48 on Inc’s list of fastest-growing organizations.
Successive phases for the growth of the company are building high-quality union with rental yards and looking into raising a Series A to continue rising upwards.
The $52 billion equipment rental market is mostly filled by businesses that are either too small to take over or too sluggish to innovate. It’s thrilling to watch BigRentz adapt the platform business model to the vertical so deftly and with such enthusiasm.
Bigrentz Business Model
Bigrentz is a multi-product online equipment rental network that has become the market leader in the online equipment rental network. It works as an agent for heavy equipment rental in over 10,000 American cities.
It is a technology-enabled equipment rental logistics company that works with a network of suppliers to discover the best rental and shipping options for its clients.
BigRentz is revolutionizing the rental of construction equipment. The competition that Bigrentz is giving to other companies in regards to offering various locations is not even comparable. They have 1600 rental partners, which makes them the biggest equipment rental network in the nation. The company is going in front in the equipment rental industry by using ingenious technology to simplify the rental process for both the consumer and the supplier. They also make the procurement and logistics issues of renting construction equipment easier for their customers and assist the equipment providers in increasing income, expanding their reach, and increasing overall usage. BigRentz has been focusing on combining technology and construction rentals since 2012 in order to create the nation’s largest equipment rental network. This effort has enabled a more accessible and efficient rental procedure.
The main aim of Bigrentz is only one thing, to assist others. Their three-word motto – “Built around you” – was inspired by the customer, who only developed all of these services and technology around. Everything Bigrentz does is based on this principle. It’s what differentiates them and sets them apart from the competition. It’s what allows them to interact with each and every rental partner and consumer on a personal level. This attitude is what keeps the company and brand afloat as the go-to supplier for your equipment rental needs. What began as a tiny group of people with a pen, paper, and a desire to revolutionize the way heavy equipment is rented, has grown into one of the fastest-growing and most widely-publicized businesses.
BigRentz is like the Google of heavy equipment rental, somewhat like a one-stop-shop where anyone, wherever in the United States, can find and rent the machine they need. It’s actually a little more practical than Google. There are no phone numbers to dial or locations to locate. BigRentz takes care of all of your callings and procuring.
Types of equipment rented
- Aerial equipment
- Boom lifts
- Scissor lifts
- Material handling equipment
- Forklifts
- Telehandlers
- Earthmoving equipment
- Backhoes
- Skid steers
- Dozers
- Site services
- Dumpsters
- Light towers
- Storage containers
How does Bigrentz work?
When a customer places an order with BigRentz, whether through the website or by phone call, it is routed to a queue of tasks within the QuickRentz system. The tasks to be done are ordered sources and calls that need to be made to clients or rental suppliers. When a member of the BigRentz team completes one task, he/she is immediately assigned to the next most important task in the system. This seems to be the most pressing task in the system. When the task is an order, a member of the sourcing team sends it to suppliers near the customer.
A text message and an email with a link to the order are then sent to the suppliers. The link provides all of the necessary information to the provider, including what machine is required, where and when it is required, and the rate BigRentz is willing to pay the rental house for it. A supplier then has the option of accepting or declining the order, and if no supplier claims an order, then the sourcing team at BigRentz starts making phone calls to suppliers.
Not only is it simple to sort prices and order a machine via Bigrentz but also it is super convenient to access the company’s customer interface, which is where the portal shines. You’ll receive a text message and an email with a link to this portal as soon as you place an order, making it simple to track the progress of your order, extend a rental once it’s in process, and terminate a rental.
And in addition to keeping BigRentz’s previously chaotic spreadsheet-based procedure in order, the technology also mines a lot of valuable data about the equipment rental industry across the United States. They also share everything with their suppliers to provide them with valuable knowledge about the industry.
The data that Bigrentz provides to its suppliers is crucial. They can already see their market on a local level. BigRentz can discover what machines are most needed by aggregating the reasons why suppliers can’t accept a rental, whether it’s due to rate or supply, in addition to recognizing what machines are renting well in various sections of the country.
Customer Relationship
Beyond every other service that Bigrentz provides, the most valuable asset is its customer portal, through which the company takes care of contractors and other renters on its platform. As soon as your order is placed, you (the user) receive a text message and an email containing a link to the customer portal. This portal makes it easy for the customer to track the progress of the order, extend the rental, and even terminate it. Being a broker, both the sides, i.e., the customer and the supplier side, is important to be taken care of as its business heavily depends on the success of these two key partners.
Order fulfillment
The company brings together both the key partners through a fulfillment platform, QuickRentz (which is also built by the same company). When an order is processed on Bigrentz, the system sends a queue of tasks to the QuickRentz system. We have already gone through the working of the QuickRentz system, so I don’t think its needs to be explained again.
Supply-side relationships
BigRentz has a team committed completely to establishing and supporting supplier relationships, just as BigRentz consumers can speak to a supplier when they need to.
Director of Supply Keith Holmes leads the team, which has seen the company’s supply partners increase from 50 in 2014 to approximately 1700 today.
The most important aspect is the relationship between Bigrentz and suppliers. When a technology firm like BigRentz enters an old-school industry, there’s a fear factor on the side of suppliers because of a web-based business as Bigrentz doesn’t have any assets of their own also. Their main query is about how the company will interact with them in that industry that they have established.
Aside from the data and revenue that BigRentz may pass along to suppliers, another significant benefit that suppliers have noticed is exposure. The suppliers get great exposure to the outside world, as one of the suppliers of Bigrentz told that he had completed an order of his rental house for an Amazon fulfillment center. Along with that, they are offered various learning materials too to help the suppliers understand the industry better.
How does Bigrentz make money?
As of now, we have completely understood the Bigrentz business model and its working process, so it’s the right time to understand the Bigrentz revenue model to answer – “How does Bigrentz make money?”
Every equipment rental business has a wide range of revenue generation channels. The most common ones are
- Commission: The equipment owner earns a commission on every transaction that takes place on the platform, and the rest portion is charged by the platform itself.
- Advertising: The equipment owners can advertise their products on the platform. The advertising cost charged by the platform is decided based on the number of clicks/views.
- Featured Listings: The equipment owners can pay a certain amount of money to add their listings in the featured section
- Subscriptions (Premium subscription): Every platform has certain subscription plans that the sellers can buy to enjoy some added benefits with their usual operation on the platform, such as reduced delivery charges, discounts, etc.
However, when we specifically talk about Bigrentz’s business model, we observe that the company is making its revenue completely through the commission fee that it charges on every order processed using the Bigrentz platform.
Who are Bigrentz’s investors?
According to Crunchbase, Bigrentz has successfully raised a total funding amount of $31.1M in over 5 funding rounds. Their most recent funding came from a Series B round on April 1, 2020.
| Announced Date | Transaction Name | Number of Investors | Money Raised | Lead Investors
|
| 1 April 2020 | Series B | 1 | $15M | ITOCHU Corporation |
| 5 Apr 2019 | Funding Round | – | $795K | – |
| 1 Apr 2018 | Series A | 2 | $10M | St. Cloud Corporation |
| 2 May 2015 | Debt Financing | 1 | $5M | St. Cloud Corporation |
| 4 Feb 2014 | Seed Round | – | $300K | – |
Bigrentz is funded by 3 investors and the number of lead investors is 2.
The number of lead investors – 2
Total number of investors – 3
| Investor Name | Lead Investor | Funding Round | Partners | – |
| ITOCHU Corporation | Yes | Series B | Masahiko Yoshikawa | – |
| Explorer Equity Group | – | Series A | – | – |
| St. Cloud Corporation | Yes | Series A | – | – |
| St. Cloud Corporation | Yes | Debt Financing | – | – |
| St. Cloud Corporation | Yes | Debt Financing | – | – |
BigRentz acquired Lizzy Lift on 16 March 2021.
| Acquiree Name | Announced Date | Price | Transaction Name |
| Lizzy Lift | 16 Mar 2021 | – | Lizzy Lift acquired by Bigrentz |
Name & Role of Key Executives
Chief Technology Officer – Liam Stannard
CFO – Neda Etemad
Founder –Nick Kovacevich
CEO – Scott Cannon
VP Site Services – Business Development – Chris Kempa
Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence – Elizabeth Alene DuBose-Faruzzi
BigRentz has 2 board members and advisors –
- Dallas Imbimbo
- Nick Kovacevich
Conclusion
According to research, the global construction equipment rental market is estimated to reach 250.4 billion, at a CAGR of 3.8 between 2021 and 2026. This data showcases the humongous profit in the equipment rental marketplace in the coming years. Renting equipment makes economic sense as it saves a comparatively huge amount of cost of buying new equipment and also brings down frequent expenses such as labor, maintenance, and operational costs.
With current sales of $37.43 billion in 2020-21 and expected revenue of $42.6 billion in 2024, the equipment rental industry is a substantial contributor to the US economy. This estimate includes short-term rental and leasing initiatives, showing that overall equipment rental activities are expected to rise.
If you are willing to launch a heavy equipment rental platform similar to Bigrentz, NCrypted Technologies has efficient answer like equipment rental solution which is developed by our capable and innovative workforce. We offer customized and innovative features as per your requirement to let you launch a successful equipment rental platform.
