Crib, an Indian software company that runs property management for co-living spaces, hostels and paying-guest (PG) accommodation, said on July 1, 2026 that it had acquired CirclePe, a rent financing startup that lets tenants move in without paying a security deposit.
The price was not disclosed. Neither company gave the structure of the deal or said how many CirclePe staff would join Crib.
CirclePe's financing will be built into Crib's platform. Tenants at participating properties can skip the upfront deposit and instead pay a small extra amount each month on top of rent, while operators receive rent and the deposit amount upfront. The combined company said the product was already live with operators including Housr, Blossom Stayz, Kots World and Livstations.
What CirclePe built
CirclePe was founded in 2024 by Navan Jaiswal and Ankur Yadav. It does not lend from its own balance sheet. Instead it works with non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), which fund the deposit or the rent commitment. The money is paid to the operator at the start of the tenancy, and the tenant repays it in smaller monthly amounts.
The problem it targets is the size of deposits in Indian cities. Inc42 reported that deposits in metro areas have risen to more than six months of rent paid upfront, locking up a large share of tenants' savings for the length of a stay. Operators, for their part, often wait on month-by-month collections while they need cash to acquire and furnish buildings.
"We started CirclePe because the deposit is a tax on moving," Ankur Yadav, a co-founder of CirclePe, said in the announcement. He said joining Crib gave the product scale and trust with operators who already run their rent on Crib's platform.
“We started CirclePe because the deposit is a tax on moving. Tenants lose access to their own money.”
Why Crib is buying
Crib was founded in 2021 by Sunny Garg, Shaifali Jain and Archit Chauhan, according to Inc42. Its software covers the rental cycle for operators: inventory, agreements, tenant onboarding, invoicing, collections, renewals and move-outs. The company says it has more than 2,500 operators on the platform, managing over $1 billion in rent between them.
That base gives Crib a ready distribution channel for a financing product. Rather than send tenants to a separate app, Crib can offer the deposit financing inside the software operators already use. The company also said the payment, move-out, occupancy and property data it collects can help build its own underwriting, and Inc42 reported that Crib plans to use CirclePe's aggregated user data for that purpose.
"Deposits are the most broken part of renting in India," Sunny Garg, Crib's co-founder and CEO, said. He said bringing the two companies together meant a tenant could move in with no deposit and an operator could be paid upfront on the same platform.
The founders and the funding
In May 2024 CirclePe raised close to ₹7.5 crore (about $900,000) in a pre-seed round at a valuation of around ₹35 crore (about $4.2 million). OTP Ventures led the round, with 1947 Rise, iSeed, IIT Delhi and Venture Catalysts taking part, along with founders and senior executives from companies including OfBusiness, BharatPe, Uni Cards and OYO.
Inc42 put CirclePe's total funding to date at $1.5 million, from investors including IIT Delhi, OTP Venture Partners and Venture Catalysts. Crib's own funding was not disclosed in the announcement.
A crowded rental software market
Crib competes in a property management software market that Inc42 described as led by NoBroker, with RentOk and ManagR among other players. Rent financing has also drawn several startups as deposits have grown, with Flent and RentenPe among the companies active in the segment.
By combining management software and financing, Crib is betting that operators will prefer one platform that handles both day-to-day operations and the cash flow problem created by deposits. The companies did not disclose how many tenants have used the zero-deposit product so far or the volume of financing CirclePe's lending partners have provided.
