The fact of the matter is that doing something that is out of the ordinary is never simple. Particularly in industries that are regarded as being stubborn and boring, like construction, maintenance, logistics, etc. Despite this, Antbuildz.com has revolutionized equipment renting by enabling customers to search, compare, and rent equipment within a few clicks, making it Singapore’s first and largest online B2B equipment rental marketplace. Simply calling it the “booking.com” of equipment rental.
Before launching Antbuildz.com alongside Pouya Pezhman and Lim Chun Heang, Kek Hean Hooi, who last worked for a major equipment rental firm in Singapore, came up with the initial concept. He became aware of how inefficient equipment renting is in construction and general B2B businesses when working with the rental company; for example, a basic piece of equipment might take days just to get the quotation. You would then need to go through clarification and negotiation just to get the rental closed. The entire rental process is overcomplicated.
As a result of his extensive research, he believes that there is a significant opportunity to digitalize the rental market, particularly as the world of digitalization evolves. If we can rent a hotel online or a car online, why can’t we rent equipment online?
The idea was first proposed to his former management but was rejected, with the reason that “nobody will rent equipment online”. That’s when Kek decided to take matters into his own hands to realize the vision, and with the help of the team, Antbuildz.com was formed.
Started amid COVID-19, in mid-2020. Many rental companies saw themselves adversely affected by the situation, with almost 80% of equipment idling, which was challenging to say the least. As a result, they were eager to try every single way to keep their business viable.
Antbuildz.com is lucky to have taken advantage of this opportunity during the tough period, successfully onboarding a series of well-established rental partners and helping them to digitalize their rental business. On the other hand, more and more businesses and contractors started to use Antbuildz.com to source the equipment they needed online and rent it with us.
“Before Antbuildz.com, none of the single cents of rental transactions happened online in South East Asia”
Today, 80% of our customers are SME contractors and they range from construction, logistics, warehousing, facility maintenance, and more. This group of users often does not have strong ties with rental providers, as they seek to obtain better deals, such as transparency, better rental prices, and quality equipment.
Because we are trustworthy and reliable, more than half of them return to us. They love what we offer because now they can search and compare their preferred equipment rental instantly. Additionally, not only can they enjoy the transparency of our rental rates, but every single piece of their rented equipment is also protected with the Antbuildz Protection Plan which covers damages up to S$15,000, by the well-known Hong Leong Assurance.
On the other hand, Antbuildz.com is helping rental companies or asset owners digitalize their rental businesses. By partnering with Antbuildz, our rental partners can reach all types of users across different industries with zero marketing cost, increase their rental utilization, and reduce business risks with our payment guarantee policy and Antbuildz Protection Plan.
Up to today, more than 400 companies have been using Antbuildz.com to rent their preferred equipment regularly. We have transacted over 50,000 days of rental, for a total transaction value of close to S$2 million. We are proud to be trusted by more than 150 reliable rental companies that offer a variety of rental products from MEWP, Earth Moving, Material Handling Equipment, Vehicle, and lifting equipment to technology solutions like robotics.
Antbuildz.com wants to create a sustainable rental ecosystem to empower every single B2B rental transacted digitally. Moving forward, our team will continue to create broader awareness in the market and onboard more rental partners and equipment listings. We are also planning for overseas expansion by next year.
We are also raising funds from potential investors who share our vision to bring the idea to the next level, internationally. The happening of online equipment rental is no longer a question; it’s already happening.
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