The Rent.com.au Ltd (ASX: RNT) share price has had a volatile year so far on the ASX but is still up 380% year to date.
Having finished January trading at 4 cents, the company's shares reached 31 cents by 15 February – a massive 675% increase in the short time frame. Since then, however, the company's shares have dropped back to 24 cents at the time of writing, an almost 23% drop in little more than a month.
Let's take a look at what's been moving the company's share price.
Fintech and millionaires
Two significant happenings have been announced by Rent.com.au in recent months.
The first sparked intense interest amongst investors, as Australian technology entrepreneur Bevan Slattery invested $2.75 million into the company via a placement in early February. The placement included Rent.com.au issuing Mr Slattery with 55 million new fully paid ordinary shares, each costing the millionaire 5 cents.
Many investors believe a knowledgeable business identity investing heavily into a business is a sign of their faith in the company's future success. This seems to be the case for Rent.com.au. The week after news of Mr Slattery's investment hit headlines, the company's share price rose by 76.92%.
The second happening was announced only yesterday, as Rent.com.au unveiled its new FinTech product RentPay's agreement with SkyCredit Pty Ltd. The company said the agreement has given it the opportunity to add additional features to RentPay. Although, doing so has set its launch date back by 4 to 6 weeks.
RentPay is an app that allows renters easy management of their rental payments. It can be configured to automatically direct debit a tenant's rent and can be shown to prospective landlords as proof of a good payment history.
Yesterday's announcement was followed by a 13.8% drop in the Rent.com.au share price.
Rent.com.au share price snapshot
Today, the Rent.com.au share price is failing to recover from yesterday's falls and has dropped lower still.
However, over the last 12 months, the company's shares are up a whopping 700%.
Rent.com.au has a market capitalisation of around $99 million, with approximately 397 million shares outstanding.
