How Plenti cut verification costs by 37% and removed the biggest drop-off in its funnel

Plenti rents high-end consumer electronics on subscription: the latest iPhones, top-spec MacBook Pros, gaming consoles. Customers get the hardware without buying it outright or committing to a multi-year loan, and the whole process runs online.

Since launching in 2018 the platform has grown to 200,000+ registered users and a catalogue of 2,000+ device models.

The absence of a deposit or an advance instalment is deliberate. Plenti's view is that a modern rental should ask for the same thing as a streaming subscription, which is a monthly payment and nothing else. People used to signing up for a service in two minutes won't accept a rental company sitting on several hundred dollars of their money.

But offering high-value tech with no deposit created a major challenge: how to verify customers without driving up verification costs or losing them to drop-off at the identity step.

The ID photo step was doubling what Plenti paid to win a customer

With nothing paid upfront, a device worth $4,000 leaves the warehouse on the strength of that check alone.

Plenti already ran document OCR, Open Banking, credit bureaux checks, and its own decision engine in parallel. What was missing was a state-issued eID path. For identity checks, the process relied on OCR. Customers were asked to photograph their ID card and upload it, which is a demand that a fair number of people simply refuse.

Handing over a full image of an identity document to a company you have just discovered is an uncomfortable thing to do, and it sits at exactly the moment when a customer is deciding whether to trust you at all.

The mechanics made it worse: poor lighting, blurred captures, rejected uploads, retries. Drop-off at that step was high enough that in some cohorts it doubled the cost of acquiring a customer.

The check itself was also weaker than Plenti wanted. A photographed card comes down to whether it looks genuine, and looking genuine is not the same as being genuine.

Choosing a verification partner

The main requirement at the outset was support for mObywatel, Poland's national eID app, which returns government-sourced identity data with no document scan involved. 

Authologic offered mObywatel alongside backup methods – every verification path has a secondary route, so a customer who can't complete eID verification is offered an alternative rather than hitting a dead end.

That principle weighed heavily for a business whose revenue depends on completed verifications.

Fast technical setup and a smooth path to mObywatel approval

Building and testing the connection to Authologic was a matter of weeks. Plenti positioned verification at the end of the funnel, immediately before the contract is confirmed, so customers reach it having already chosen a device and a plan.

Using mObywatel commercially is a separate matter, and it requires approval from the Polish government. Authologic had been through the process before, which shortened the paperwork cycle. Plenti submitted and cleared the application without delays.

Verification now costs 37% less and the check takes seconds

An mObywatel check costs Plenti significantly less than an OCR check does, and since most customers take that route, the cost of verification overall dropped by 37%.

Given the choice, around 87% of Plenti's customers verify through mObywatel. They confirm their identity in a few seconds inside an app already on their phone, against a document process that used to run for minutes and sometimes ended in nothing.

Fraud on that path is essentially non-existent. A credential issued and cryptographically signed by the state isn't something a fraudster can fake.

The other shift is automation. Authologic supplies the identity verification layer, while credit scoring, limit setting, and the final decision remain strictly within Plenti's own risk engine. With identity confirmed at the source, most applications clear without a manual reviewer.

Knowing exactly who is on the other side of the transaction gives Plenti a clearer view of risk, so it can put higher-value devices in front of more customers.

Looking ahead

With every renter's identity confirmed against the state register before a contract is signed, Plenti can push further into the premium end of its catalogue, where a single bad rental costs the most.

EUDI Wallets roll out across Europe over the coming years, and Plenti's verification layer already accommodates them. Supporting the Wallets issued in other member states becomes a matter of configuration rather than a rebuild, which makes expansion beyond the home market more practical.

Plenti's own read on the wider market is that the common mistake is treating verification as a compliance obligation and leaving it as slow and manual as it has always been. The cost surfaces as abandoned carts rather than as an identifiable line item, so it tends to go unnoticed.

Plenti built verification directly into the buying process, making sure sign-up is as easy for honest customers as it is secure for the business.