Cardoo

What Cardoo does

Cardoo (legal entity: Cardoo Cyprus Ltd, Reg 434654) is a B2B fintech founded in 2021 that provides a deposit-free rental solution branded as "DepositFree" for car rental companies and, more recently, real estate operators. The core product replaces traditional security deposits with a payment card issued by major and regional banks globally — the card's credit limit equals the rental operator's average monthly security deposits, allowing end customers to rent without locking up funds while preserving the operator's ability to charge for damages or fines via the same card. Cardoo distributes through direct B2B partnerships with rental operators and embeds its solution onto four payment networks (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club) plus UPay as a payment technology partner.

Cardoo operates a transaction-based revenue model: the DepositFree service is provided free of charge to partner rental companies, and revenue accrues on each rental transaction when the end renter pays a DepositFree fee starting from 0.8% of the deposit amount per day for short-term rentals of up to two weeks, with a regressive pricing scale applied for long-term rentals. The company serves two customer segments — car rental companies (flagship customers include Europcar, Enterprise, Hertz, Sixt, and Avis, with 700+ total rental partners) and real estate operators/landlords. Cardoo cites a 63% boost in order value for car rental upgrade attach and up to a 40% increase in rental checks for real estate as commercial outcomes.

Cardoo maintains a multi-jurisdictional corporate structure with a primary legal entity in Cyprus (Cardoo Cyprus Ltd, Limassol), an Estonian entity (Cardoo OU, Tallinn), and a MENA regional entity (CARDOO MENA - FZCO, Dubai). The company reports 240,000+ deposit-free rentals processed and $200M+ in deposits eliminated across 30 countries. No funding rounds, acquisitions, or institutional investor information are disclosed in the available data. Leadership includes Alisher Murtazaev as Chief Executive Officer and Nadya Seliverstova as co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer.

Name

Cardoo

Legal name

Cardoo Cyprus Ltd

Website

https://cardoo.finance

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Cardoo is a B2B fintech that provides "DepositFree," a bank-issued payment card enabling car rental and real estate companies to eliminate security deposits while retaining damage and fine chargeback protection. It serves 700+ rental partners across 30 countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Rental Financial Services

NAICS

Credit Card Issuing (522210)

SIC

Finance Services (6199)

akta.pro primary industry

Travel Money Cards & Multi-Currency Prepaid (FSAMANAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Virtual Prepaid & Single-Use / Tokenized Cards (FSAMANAJ)

Keywords

• Deposit-free rentals
• Rental payment solutions
• Security deposit alternatives
• Car rental fintech
• Rental financial services

Headquarters

HQ city

Tallinn

HQ country

Estonia

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. DepositFree Fee: Cardoo charges a fee for the deposit-free rental option. For short-term rentals (up to 2 weeks), the fee starts from 0.8% of the deposit amount per day. For long-term rentals, a regressive pricing scale is applied. This is a usage/transaction-based revenue model where fees scale with rental duration and deposit value.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Cardoo provides the DepositFree financial service, a payment card issued by major and regional banks globally that lets rental companies (car rental and real estate) replace traditional security deposits with a card-based deposit hold whose limit equals the partner's average monthly security deposits. End renters can choose deposit-free rentals by paying a usage-based DepositFree fee (starting from 0.8% of the deposit amount per day for short-term rentals, with a regressive scale for long-term rentals), while partners retain the ability to charge the card for damages and fines.

Product overview

Cardoo offers a single unified product called DepositFree — a financial service that enables car rental and real estate companies to offer deposit-free renting options to their customers. The service works by providing companies with a payment card for deposit holds, allowing clients to rent without a traditional security deposit for a small fee. Cardoo serves both car rental companies (boosting order values by 63% through car upgrades) and real estate companies (increasing rental checks up to 40% and enabling faster occupancy). The platform is backed by major payment card networks including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Diners Club, and operates across 30 countries with over 700 rental partners.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• DepositFree

Quantifiable outcome

• 63% boost in order value as clients upgrade cars without a deposit
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• EuropcarcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorMajor car rental brand partnered with Cardoo to offer deposit-free rental options to customers. Europcar is listed among the flagship partners alongside Enterprise, Hertz, Sixt, and Avis.
• EnterprisecoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorEnterprise is one of Cardoo's flagship rental partners offering deposit-free rental options. Listed alongside Europcar, Hertz, Sixt, and Avis as major brand partners.
• HertzcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorMajor car rental company partnered with Cardoo to offer deposit-free rental options. Part of the flagship partner group including Europcar, Enterprise, Sixt, and Avis.
• SixtcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPremium car rental brand partnered with Cardoo for deposit-free rentals. Listed among major brand partners alongside Europcar, Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis.
• AviscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorGlobal car rental company partnered with Cardoo to offer deposit-free rental options. Part of the flagship partner group including Europcar, Enterprise, Hertz, and Sixt.
• 700+ Rental CompaniesminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorBeyond major brands, Cardoo has partnered with over 700 rental companies globally to provide deposit-free rental solutions.
• VisacoreTechnology or IntegrationVisa is listed as a technical partner, with Cardoo's payment cards running on the Visa network for deposit hold processing.
• MastercardcoreTechnology or IntegrationMastercard is a technical partner providing the payment network infrastructure for Cardoo's deposit-free cards.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Unit Finance: Unit is an embedded banking-as-a-service provider offering card issuance, accounts, and lending APIs to fintechs. Cardoo sits on the same embedded-finance stack conceptually, with deposit-hold cards being a specialized use case of the broader "banking embedded into a partner flow" trend.
• AirHelp: AirHelp is a travel-finance platform helping passengers claim compensation and offering ancillary travel protection products. It operates in the adjacent travel financial-protection category where Cardoo's deposit-free offering also creates a trust-enhancing layer for renters.

Broad incumbents

• Stripe Issuing: Stripe Issuing is an API-driven card-issuing program for platforms that want to create and manage physical or virtual cards. Cardoo's bank-issued deposit cards compete in the same conceptual category — programmatically issued cards used as financial controls in a partner workflow.
• Cover Genius: Cover Genius is an embedded insurance platform that lets partners embed protection products (including rental-related guarantees) at checkout. While Cardoo uses a card to manage risk rather than insurance, both compete to replace or augment traditional deposits with embedded financial protections.
• Marqeta: Marqeta is a card-issuing API platform used by fintechs to launch and manage debit, prepaid and credit card programs. Cardoo's reliance on issuing banks to run its deposit-hold cards is conceptually adjacent to Marqeta's modern card-issuing infrastructure, making it a comparable enabling layer in the deposit-free rental space.
• AirCover (Airbnb): AirCover is Airbnb's embedded damage and deposit-protection program for hosts. It is the most visible example of a marketplace-style platform absorbing the security-deposit function, conceptually aligned with Cardoo's move into real-estate/short-stay rentals.

Others

• Plaid: Plaid provides financial-data and account-verification infrastructure used by fintechs. Cardoo's bank-issued card workflow relies on similar rails; Plaid is an adjacent infrastructure enabler rather than a direct competitor.

Direct peers

• RentalCover.com: RentalCover.com sells rental-vehicle damage and liability protection as an add-on at checkout. It competes for the same "rental risk/financial-control" layer that Cardoo occupies, often sitting at the same point in the booking flow where the deposit decision is made.
• Bonzah: Bonzah issues a virtual prepaid card for rental car and hotel deposits. It is the closest direct competitor to Cardoo's DepositFree product, solving the same problem (blocked security deposits) with a similar tokenized payment-card mechanism and renting vertical focus.
• The Guarantors: The Guarantors is a fintech that offers deposit-replacement products (lease guarantees) for residential real estate. It is the direct analog in the U.S. real-estate vertical of what Cardoo's DepositFree offers to landlords and property managers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cardoo-finance

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cardoo