Rental deposits reinvented with cloud and managed services

With its platform, Evorest AG is disrupting the rental market by transforming locked-up rental deposits into return-bearing investments. For development and operation of the solution, the FinTech start-up opted for the versatility of Amazon Web Services combined with local support from Swisscom.

Anyone who has ever rented property in Switzerland will be only too familiar with the obligatory rental deposit. While serving as a security guarantee for landlords to cover potential damage, for new tenants it is a necessary evil: locked-up capital that cannot be spent or yield returns.

Zurich-based start-up Evorest is changing all that. With their service, tenants can now make their deposits work for them by investing in securities. This means that a locked-up deposit amount can be converted into a protected equity investment. To support this, Evorest has developed a platform that digitises the entire rental deposit process. Tenants can sign their rental deposit agreement digitally and invest their locked-up capital in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Evorest is working with Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, which manages the capital and ensures the safe custody of the deposits.

For FinTech start-up Evorest to guarantee smooth and, above all, secure operation of its platform and app in the future, choosing the right IT infrastructure was key. It soon became clear that their journey would take them to the cloud. As Felix Graule, CTO of Evorest AG, explains: ‘Agility and scalability are essential for our business model. A cloud-based infrastructure is particularly attractive for start-ups since costs are more accessible, and you have access to innovative solutions and benefit from unlimited scalability.’

Hyperscaler meets local support

After evaluating a selection of cloud providers, Evorest eventually opted for AWS. The decision was swayed both by the simple integration of complex services and the functional scope offered by AWS. In addition to container-based workloads, Evorest is using Amazon’s Cognito service for user authentication and dedicated firewalls to protect the infrastructure. Another important factor in the decision was developer familiarity with AWS: ‘When developing our solutions,’ says Graule, ‘we also work with external specialists. A standard solution such as AWS, which the developers already know well, is a major advantage in this regard.’

Despite the many positives, it cannot be denied that, for companies like Evorest, the journey to the cloud is not an easy one. While room for improvement is acceptable when it comes to performance or cost optimisation, there’s zero tolerance for security shortcomings in the FinTech industry. Evorest therefore turned to Swisscom for support. ‘As a FinTech company, you only have one chance to get your security right,’ concurs Graule. ‘In the seed stage in particular, the input of experienced cloud experts is extremely useful to us. Swisscom also brings this expertise to bear externally with our customers.’

Swisscom as sparring partner

In its capacity as Managed Service provider, Swisscom also lends Evorest its expertise on local market conditions and regulatory requirements, offering the start-up short communication channels and local support to facilitate a swift emergency response. During the development phase, Swisscom is also serving as a sparring partner for Evorest to help optimise performance and security of the solution. It recently conducted a detailed security review of Evorest’s entire IT infrastructure, for example. ‘This is helping us to further improve our infrastructure and the applications that run on it. We can thus sleep soundly at night, knowing that Swisscom has our back,’ concludes Graule.

The launch of the Evorest platform is imminent, with the solution due to go live in early November. The close partnership between Evorest, Swisscom and AWS will also play a crucial role in operations, ensuring that the platform remains secure, efficient and scalable. Felix Graule: ‘We want to help our customers achieve financial freedom and grow their wealth. With the support of AWS and Swisscom, we are confident that we can do this.’

How the collaboration between Swisscom, Evorest and AWS works