Local entrepreneur Robert Preville announced Thursday the launch of KWIPPED.com, an online platform targeting how companies source and rent specialized equipment, according to a news release.
 
Preville, a serial entrepreneur, is CEO and co-founder of KWIPPED. He is also co-owner of the Greater Wilmington Business Journal and WILMA magazine. Rob Kaiser, co-owner of the Business Journal and WILMA, is a KWIPPED co-founder as well. Robin Salter, a communications strategist and Wilmington resident, is the chief marketing officer, Preville said Thursday.
 
He did not disclose the investment amount.
 
KWIPPED.com aims to be a rental marketplace for more than 500 categories of commercial equipment, Preville said. Those categories include heavy construction, medical, film production, work zone safety, material handling, telecommunications, welding and electronics.
 
“There are 27,000 rental establishments in the United States. The renting of equipment is an $85 billion market, but there is no established marketplace for equipment rentals – as opposed to equipment sales,” Preville said.
 
Preville said he saw the potential for this type of business several years ago when he owned and operated GlobalTestSupply.com. As part of its business, the company rented equipment to its customers and saw that such transactions were profitable, he said.
 
“It was quite inefficient, though – very manual,” he said. “We were always faxing contracts, and often customers didn’t realize they could rent from us rather than buy what they needed.”
 
Because finding and renting the right equipment can be time consuming, it often gets delegated to sub-contractors, who can mark up the cost, Preville said.
 
“Discovery of equipment on KWIPPED.com will enable businesses to expand their capabilities and bid on projects they may previously have passed on due to lack of access to the necessary equipment,” he said in the news release. “KWIPPED.com matches its inventory to the relevant renter requests, qualifies the renters, offers the first layer of customer service and takes the hassle out of the rental business. The end result for suppliers is less equipment on the shelves and higher utilization rates.”
 
As of Thursday’s official launch, five suppliers have signed on to KWIPPED. Those include a Chicago-based company with 35,000 square feet of space filled with medical equipment, a Wilmington company with between 4,000 and 5,000 square feet of AV equipment and a company that rents test equipment, Preville said, adding that a local builder also has requested rentals.