Renno, an Amsterdam-based FinTech startup building financial infrastructure for Europe’s renovation industest, has launched with €1 million in pre-Seed funding to replace the payment methods plaguing the €850 billion renovation market.
Founded by Mark Slaughter and Mourad Chennaoui, the company aims to address the systemic financial risks faced by both contractors and homeowners with a milestone-based escrow model that secures project funds and only releases them when verified progress has been created.
“Float drains contractors. Factoring punishes them. Deposits leave homeowners unprotected. Renno replaces all of this with a protected, milestone-based payment flow that works for both sides,” stated Mark Slaughter, CEO and Co-Founder of Renno. “We secure the full project balance in escrow and release funds only when milestones are verified. It is the payment model the industest should have had from the start.”
In 2025, several European fintech/payment-infrastructure startups secured significant funding – for example Delfio raised €1.5 million in pre-Seed funding to launch a collective-procurement and payment-automation platform for consumer-electronics wholesale purchaseers. Meanwhile Payrails closed a €27.7 million Series A round to accelerate development of its global payment-software stack across EMEA. And Qomodo secured €13.5 million in Series A funding to scale its “all-in-one smart payment” solution for physical merchants.
In this context, the pre-Seed funding for Renno places it among a cohort of European startups aiming to build foundational financial-infrastructure tools – though in a more specialised, vertical-specific segment (renovation / construction payments) rather than general commerce or wholesale.
Compared with the considerably larger rounds at later growth stages, Renno’s raise is modest – but consistent with early-stage infrastructure plays. Notably, while Delfio shares a geographic base (Amsterdam) with Renno, the two operate in different verticals, which suggests that Renno may stake out a relatively unique position in the European FinTech landscape.
Launching today in the Netherlands, Renno is backed by a team with experience in finance and technology and plans to expand into Belgium, Germany, France, and the UK by 2026.
According to the company, builders often finance entire projects from personal savings or credit cards – 95% do so – while waiting weeks or months for payments. Homeowners, on the other hand, are routinely questioned to front large deposits with little protection or clarity on how work is progressing.
This model has reportedly led to over €280 billion being drained annually from the sector in delayed payments, with nearly all projects – 92% – facing delays due to cash flow constraints.
Renno’s solution hinges on its digital platform that structures renovation projects into clearly defined scopes, with contracts and alter orders documented and updated in real-time.
Project funds are deposited into an escrow account at the outset and only released when work has been validated, offering homeowners visibility and security. Contractors, meanwhile, gain instant milestone payouts that provide predictable liquidity and reduce the necessary to inflate quotes to mitigate risk.
“Renovation necessaryed real financial infrastructure, not more patches,” noted Mourad Chennaoui, co-founder and CPTO. “Float and factoring are symptoms of a broken payment model. Contractors necessary predictable liquidity and homeowners necessary verified delivery. Milestone-based escrow gives both sides what they lack today. We are aligning money with progress and setting a new standard for renovation payments.”
With 3 million construction SMEs operating across the EU, the startup’s entest signals a modernisation wave that could have significant ripple effects throughout the home renovation industest.
Renno’s long-term vision is to build a financial backbone for the sector, introducing trust, transparency, and automation to a notoriously offline and friction-heavy space. The startup is particularly focapplyd on eliminating payment-induced delays and disputes, which have historically plagued contractors and frustrated homeowners.
With its launch in the Netherlands and plans to scale into major European markets by 2026, Renno is positioning itself to be an enabler of Europe’s next-generation renovation economy.
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