Contact us: hello@nkeyed.com
We are building financial solutions for rental payments.
nKeyed is a UK company building a product to help renters manage rent payments. We expect to launch in 2027, subject to authorisation.
Three problems we are building for
Rent rarely builds your credit history
Paying rent on time for years is one of the most reliable things a person does, yet it usually does not appear on a credit file. Lenders often cannot see it.
Rent is a large payment every month
Housing is the largest item in the average UK household budget, and rent falls due in one lump on one date. If your pay arrives in pieces across the month, the timing may not line up.
Getting in and moving on is costly
Deposits, advance rent, moving costs and overlapping rent all land at once, and a new deposit is often due before the old one comes back.
Renting by the numbers
- 8.7 millionhouseholds in England rent their home, about 35% of all households: 4.7 million from private landlords and 4.0 million from councils and housing associations (English Housing Survey, 2024-25).
- £1,400is the average monthly private rent in the UK in August 2026, up 3.8% in a year. In England it is £1,459 (Office for National Statistics).
- 34%of household income goes on rent for the average private renter in England, and 28% for social renters (English Housing Survey, 2024-25). The ONS puts the figure for private renters in London at 41.6% (2024).
- 18%of the average UK household's weekly spending goes on housing (net), fuel and power, the largest category, about £118 a week (ONS Family Spending, 2024-25).
- 1.3 millionpeople in the UK have a second job, and about 4.5 million are self-employed, so many people's pay arrives in more than one piece (ONS Labour Force Survey, 2026).
Sources: ONS, Private rent and house prices, UK: September 2026; ONS, Private rental affordability, England, Wales and Northern Ireland: 2024; ONS, Family spending in the UK: April 2024 to March 2025; ONS, workers with second jobs (series YCBW); House of Commons Library, Employment in the UK; ONS, Census 2021; English Housing Survey 2024-25, chapter 1 and chapter 2. These are averages and estimates, so your own situation will differ.
A note from the founder
I moved from New Jersey, US to London in 2015 for work, and my family and I have rented in the UK ever since. We have lived in three rented homes in south-west London, and we are still renting today.
Each move taught me what moving really costs:
- A lot of cash at once. Rent in advance and a deposit, together, at the start of every tenancy.
- Money in two places. A new deposit is due before the old one comes back, because deposits are usually returned some weeks after a tenancy ends.
- Money tied up. The deposit stays with the landlord or agent for the whole tenancy, so for years a sizeable sum was not ours to use.
We paid our rent on time throughout. When I checked my credit reports, none of that rent history from the past eleven years was on them. Nothing about these costs, or about the missing record, said anything about how reliable we were as renters.
The rules in England now limit deposits to five weeks' rent and rent in advance to one month, which helps, but the cash still has to be found.
I have also seen it from the other side. When we left New Jersey we rented out our flat in Jersey City, and the two young adults who took it over in 2024 faced the same up-front costs at the start of their careers.
These experiences, more than anything else, shaped what we are building at nKeyed. Renting is where most people's financial lives begin, and I want it to work better for them, especially for younger adults at the start of their careers.
Arvind Varadhan
Founder, nKeyed
The founder
Arvind Varadhan, Founder. Arvind has spent more than twenty years in financial services, in consumer and commercial lending, credit risk, fraud and data. He has worked at large multinational financial institutions, including Capital One, American Express and Klarna, and has held leadership roles across the US, the UK and Europe. At American Express he was Chief Credit Officer for its UK and European consumer businesses. At Klarna, he was the Group Chief Credit Officer.