This investment carries considerable risks and may lead to a loss of the entire assets invested. Projected returns cannot be guaranteed and may be lower than expected.
Since 2014, Mineko has checked over 4,500 utility bills for tenants. While doing so, we have noticed that 9 out of 10 bills are incorrect. Consequently, tenants in Germany pay a total of €5 billion in excess of the actual utility costs each year. Mineko helps clients get this money back.
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Tenants in Germany receive a utility bill once a year. On average, the costs of water, heat, and garbage disposal make up 25 % of the rent. Consequently, some people also refer to utilities as the "second rent." Tenants can hardly determine whether or not such bills are correct, for very few of them are aware of the relevant legal requirements, and most tenants trust in the values listed in the bill and pay without checking them. But, as Berlin-based start-up Mineko (www.mineko.de) has found out, 9 out of 10 utility bills are incorrect. Mineko is short for "Mietnebenkosten," the German term for utilities, and the start-up helps tenants keep track of their utility costs.
Tenants Can Upload Their Bills and Get a Reply 24 Hours LaterHere's how it works: Tenants simply upload their utility bill to www.mineko.de or through the start-up's app. Afterward, the start-up's legal experts check the bill with the help of a digital and semi-automatic process and provide users with the result within 24 hours. On average, each private tenant in Germany can save approx. €260 per year by uploading a single file to Mineko. Tenants can have their bill checked for free and do not have to purchase any subscription. If Mineko finds errors in the utility bill, the company notifies the tenants and provides them with a standardized letter to the landlord. Mineko is a licensed debt collection agency. If tenants receive a refund, the start-up receives a success-based commission of 35 %.
From the Initial Idea to Today's Business ModelMineko co-founder Chris Möller had the idea to launch the company when he received an unusually high utility bill. While talking to friends, he soon recognized that many people apparently had the same problem, so he founded the start-up. Mineko is part of a new generation of service-oriented start-ups that automate checking processes through algorithms and that have even started focusing on the application of law. Unlike conventional landlord and tenant law experts such as lawyers, tenant organizations, or other experts, Mineko has digitized the entire process from checking the bill to collecting the refund for a success-based commission. Since the company's launch, Mineko's legal experts have checked 4,500 utility bills. Each month, 30,000 people visit the start-up's website to get more information on utilities or to have their bill checked. The start-up defines itself as a holistic information portal centered around the subjects of rental apartments and utilities. And this strategy has been successful: The start-up has grown by approx. 150 % since 2015.
Investments in Further Website Development and New Sales StaffMineko plans to use the funds raised on Companisto to further automate its website and to create additional jobs. The start-up is active within a large market. Indeed, there are roughly 20 million privately rented apartments and roughly 35 million tenants in Germany. Based on the utility bills checked so far, the start-up estimates that tenants in Germany pay roughly €5 billion too much on their utility bills each year. To stop this from happening, Mineko wants to grow even faster together with the Companists. |
Crowd VotingMineko offers its Companists a special safety net, crowd voting, thus reducing the risk for Companists and strengthening their role as investors. Mineko will receive 2/3 of the investments immediately after the campaign. The last third will be deposited in an escrow account protected against insolvency, and it will not be paid out before the Companists have agreed to the payout by means of a majority decision (weighted according to investment amounts). The vote is scheduled to start 6 months after the end of the crowdfunding campaign. At the request of Mineko, the vote may also take place earlier than that. If the Companists do not agree to the payout, the remaining third will be repaid to them free of charge. It is up to the Companists to decide whether the remaining third will be paid out to Mineko, which will increase the Companists' share, or whether the remaining third will be repaid to the Companists, thus causing their share to remain 2/3 of the total investment. To help the Companists make an informed decision, Mineko will report on its business development in an investor update. We at Mineko have deliberately decided to offer crowd voting. We are convinced that we will achieve a successful market launch of our technology, and we want you to judge us by the success of our work. Therefore, we believe crowd voting is a great idea and will increase our investors‘ confidence in Mineko. |
Roughly 20 million apartments in Germany are private rental apartments. Only very few tenants are aware of the exact legal basis for their utility bill. In most cases, tenants trust the values listed in their utility bill and are happy when they get a refund. However, almost all utility bills are incorrect as our analyses have shown. As a result, the majority of German tenants pay too much for utilities each year.
This problem is due to the management of rental property. Looking at the billing process, one notices the root of the problem: Property owners use standardized processes and software to manage rental apartments. Indeed, utility billing is a mass market, and individual factors are not constantly checked or taken into account. This lack of case-by-case assessment leads to systematic errors in utility bills at the expense of private tenants. Costs that may not be passed on to tenants or incorrect distribution of costs between tenants are but a few examples of common errors. In addition, landlord and tenant law is frequently changing because of new laws, so landlords are rarely aware of the most recent rules and regulations themselves.
Finally, the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has recently decided (BGH VIII ZR 93/15) to reduce the formal requirements for utility bills. This means that utility bills no longer have to include any details and explanations related to the calculation of the total costs that may be distributed between tenants. As a result, it will become even more difficult for tenants to understand and check their utility bill in the future.
The fact that demand for the Mineko (whose name is based on the German term "Mietnebenkosten" – utilities) service is increasing shows that tenants are becoming increasingly aware of this problem. In 2015, we saw our business grow by 150 %, and our website is currently visited by 30,000 people each month. The 4,500 utility bills we have checked so far have shown that 9 out of 10 utility bills are incorrect. To date, Mineko has enabled its clients to receive a total of €1.1 million in refunds on their utility bills.
Mineko provides tenants with a fast and easy way of having their utility bill checked by experts. Moreover, Mineko educates people in terms of utilities and provides private tenants with a reliable analysis of their bills that is also digital and convenient.
Mineko provides a digital solution to the existing problem of incorrectly high utility bills.
The Mineko service may be used on all digital devices, ranging from desktop computers and tablets to smartphones. At www.mineko.de or through the Mineko app, users can upload their utility bill. Afterward, our landlord and tenant law experts check the bill with the help of a digital and semi-automatic process and provide users with the result within 24 hours. Our efficient processing and screening of utility bills enables users to quickly find out whether their bill is correct. In case the bill is incorrect, we make sure users get back the amount paid in excess.
Having a utility bill checked is free for users, so there is no initial fee. For demanding a refund from the landlord, Mineko charges a success-based fee. This fee is based on the German Federal Court of Justice's ruling on the enforcement of claims. On average, each private tenant in Germany can save approx. €260 per year by uploading a single file.
In addition to providing tenants with the check result, Mineko handles the entire communication with the landlord until the incorrect utility bill is corrected. Once this has happened, tenants are repaid the amount paid in excess.
A licensed debt collecting agency, we collect refunds from landlords for a success-based fee. If we are successful, Mineko receives 35 % of the refund. Therefore, Mineko receives an average €91 per checked and incorrect utility bill.
Our checking process is based on a digital rulebook that our landlord and tenant law experts developed in 2014 and implemented in collaboration with our IT experts. This rulebook includes all rules and regulations and all court decisions related to utility billing. Moreover, it is designed in a way that constantly reduces the processing time per bill while ensuring the same high quality. We improve the rulebook every week based on the experience we have gained.
Consequently, our checking process always takes all recent legal changes into account. In addition, every single utility bill uploaded and checked expands and improves our rulebook.
In other words, we have developed a checking process that enables us to check several thousand utility bills every day.
Mineko is competing with three different groups, that is, with traditional players whose business is not digital. These are:
1. Lawyers, who are not interested in checking utility bills for clients because of too-low rates for this service. In addition, specialist lawyers focus mainly on legal proceedings.
2. Tenants organizations: Tenants usually consult a tenant organization. To do so, however, they first have to become a member of the organization and to pay an annual membership fee of roughly €79. Afterward, they have to wait between 2 and 8 weeks to get an appointment with one of the organization's lawyers. Consequently, having a utility bill checked takes relatively long, is usually done offline, is bureaucratic, and requires tenants to pay an additional fee.
3. Experts also compete with Mineko. Experts, however, solely check the utility bill and do not make sure that tenants get a refund.
Mineko, on the other hand, follows a step-by-step approach to check utility bills within 24 hours, in an entirely digital fashion, and in a convenient way. In fact, Mineko handles all steps of the checking process for tenants at a rather low rate and within a relatively short period.
Mineko has already checked more than 4,500 utility bills for tenants. Our current customer satisfaction rate is higher than 90 %.
The market consists of approx. 35 million people in Germany living in approx. 20 million rental apartments. The average apartment size is 92 m². If we assume utility costs of €2.25/m², total utility costs in Germany amount to roughly €49 billion per year.
Our analyses have shown that 88 % of utility bills are incorrect and that each incorrect bill is 10.5 % too high. This means that tenants in Germany pay a total of €5 billion in excess of the actual utility costs each year. If one assumes a market share of 100 % and a success-based fee of 35 % of the utility costs paid in excess, potential revenues amount to €1.75 billion. Our goal for 2020 is to reach a market share of 1 %, which would correspond to revenues of €17.5 million for Mineko.
Our target group of privat tenants is increasingly using smartphones and social networks. As we have adapted our website to mobile devices and are running marketing campaigns on various social networks, we are effectively reaching this target group.
Thus far, Mineko has charged users a fee for checking their utility bill. Recently, we have become a registered debt collection agency. This registration has provided the basis for expanding our business model to other areas. In the future, Mineko users will have to pay a commission of 35 % (i.e., an average €91) of their refund if the check has been successful. A debt collection agency, Mineko handles the entire process for the tenant, ranging from checking the utility bill to enforcing claims.
Another milestone will be the development of an iOS app, which will be relevant to the increasing number of smartphone users. Our Android app is already available. Our app for the Apple Store is almost done, and we will publish it in Q2 2016.
As a pilot project for future marketing campaigns, we also launched a small-scale TV campaign in 2014. This successful pilot study has shown us that the cost per new customer is as low as €40. Therefore, our new pricing system, an optimized campaign, and a higher budget will make TV commercials a profitable marketing channel.
Investment level 1: €100,000 or more
- Product development
- Implementation of the claim transfer model on our website. In such cases, we will check private tenants' utility bills for free, and tenants will transfer their claims against the landlord to our company.
- Optimization of the workflow for checking bills through automation of processes
Investment level 2: €300,000 or more
In addition to investment level 1, we plan to:
- Further develop our IT (increase the degree of automation)
- Expand our online marketing activities in terms of content
- That is, enable better Google results and attract more Google-related website visitors through informative and helpful content
- Launch a TV advertising campaign
Investment level 3: €500,000 or more
In addition to investment levels 1 & 2, we plan to:
- Launch a larger TV campaign
- Hire 2 people for our sales team
- For acquiring B2B clients such as law firms, housing companies, and local authorities
Chris Möller is the initiator of and creative mastermind behind Mineko. A serial entrepreneur and angel investor from Berlin with 15 years of experience, he is a shareholder of over 20 companies and has achieved 5 exits so far. After founding his own web agency and erento, he became the founder and managing director of Campanda, which turned into an international company present in 35 countries within only 24 months thanks to his expertise. Chris is thrilled about Mineko because the company's product digitizes an entire industry.
Christophe F. Maire is the founder and CEO of Atlantic Labs in Berlin, and he is an investor focusing on the discovery of and investment in innovative digital start-ups. For more than 20 years, Christophe has written an international success story, both as a founder – for instance of gate5 (which was first sold to Nokia and later became HERE, which was then sold to the German automotive industry) and Plazes.com (which was also sold to Nokia) – and as a far-sighted investor. His successful investments include, among others, Brands4Friends (ebay), StudiVZ (Holtzbrinck Digital), and Readmill (Dropbox); Atlantic Labs' most recent investments include, for instance, Medigo, Mimi, Clue, GoEuro, and Campanda. Christophe remains an active shareholder of all his investments, for instance as a board member at Soundcloud, EyeEm, and Monoqi, where he was the main seed investor. Named best European seed investor of 2011 and 2012 by Techcrunch, Christophe is one of the most important people who recognize new trends and support talented entrepreneurs in Berlin.
Oliver Weyergraf is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. A CEO of German start-ups that are among the most innovative within their industry, he specializes in business development, sales, and marketing. Among other things, he was part of the eBay management team and held various positions at Georg von Holtzbrinck publishing group. In addition to developing companies in the areas of e-commerce and market research, he has a passion for sailing.
Klemens Klein has been active as an entrepreneur focusing on real estate for more than 20 years. Since 2005, he has been supporting SMEs and start-ups as a coach and angel investor. At Mineko, he acts as a coach and mentor for the management and contributes his expertise and his large network.
Nicolas Witte has served as the vice president of business development at Control€xpert for over 6 years and has thus become an expert in document checking. Control€xpert checks and corrects more than 5 million quotes and bills for car insurance companies every year, thus saving these companies much time and money. Nicolas is very experienced in scaling up checking processes. At Control€xpert, his primary responsibilities include the company's expansion abroad and the foundation of international subsidiaries. "Mineko's business model is very similar, but the market is much larger and provides great opportunities for growth!"
Steffen Groß is a banker and a lawyer. His law office, Groß Rechtsanwälte (www.ragross.de), has 23 employees and specializes in tenant law. He therefore knows exactly which standards apply to utility bills, what type of mistake to expect as well as the associated consequences. Steffen is responsible for the team's legal training and developed our mathematical tool to check and assess utility bills. He is involved in various start-ups that are attempting to incorporate legal topics in the online market. ImmobilienScout24, for example, uses the sample contract developed by Groß Rechtsanwälte.
Michael Munz is an entrepreneur, investor, and the owner of Clover Ventures. He serves as an advisor to numerous growth companies such as Searchmetrics, carpooling, and Joblocal and acts as a representative of the management or of the investors in several cases.
Mineko GmbH
Uhlandstrasse 175
10719 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49 30 8095 20 470
Email: investor-relations@mineko.de
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