Why 2026 Could Be the Breakout Year for Equipment Rental Marketplaces

The future of rental marketplaces — powered by shared infrastructure

For years, the missing link in scaling rental marketplaces wasn’t demand — it was digitized supply. Without infrastructure that connects professional rental operators to marketplaces, even great marketplace ideas couldn’t scale.

That’s changing fast.

1. Friction-free infrastructure

Tuomo explains how Twice’s new platform is built to remove all friction between rental businesses and marketplace builders.

If you’re an entrepreneur starting from the demand side — for example, noticing local demand for trailer rentals — you can now launch a marketplace knowing that:

  • Local rental companies already operate on compatible infrastructure.
  • Onboarding supply takes hours, not months.
  • Their inventories, pricing, and availability can sync automatically.

The same applies to regional or travel destination operators — local associations and tourism boards can finally aggregate the services in their area into one discoverable platform, helping visitors find and book rentals easily.

2. The ecosystem effect

Once supply becomes digitized and interoperable, marketplaces can emerge from anywhere:

  • Local tourism boards
  • Regional business alliances
  • Specialized entrepreneurs with domain knowledge

Each new aggregator adds more discoverability for small rental companies and higher utilization for existing inventory — creating a shared, expanding ecosystem of recommerce.

3. What this enables

  • Higher utilization rates for operators
  • New sales channels for small businesses
  • Instant marketplace creation for entrepreneurs
  • Global scaling of local rentals and recommerce models

As Tuomo puts it: “The first rental marketplace that becomes global might say it was possible only because the supply became accessible thanks to companies like TWICE that digitized the merchants.”

That’s the infrastructure layer powering the next generation of recommerce.

Karri: Sounds like there’s both the need and the want from the supply side to have these marketplace aggregators — basically, more bookings and more sales. And it sounds like the new Twice platform is designed from the ground up to support this. So how will the market look next year, once that infrastructure is available?

Tuomo: From our perspective, what we feel is that this new infrastructure enables merchants to operate in an entrepreneurial and opportunistic way — to jump on new sales channels the moment they appear.

Tuomo: That means if you’re an entrepreneur entering the market from the demand side, for example saying, “There’s local demand for people wanting to rent trailers,” you can now build a marketplace knowing that the trailer rental companies already have compatible systems — or that there’s an extremely affordable solution for them to join.

Tuomo: We’re removing all the friction for marketplace builders.

Tuomo: And it works the other way around too. If you’re a travel destination or a local business association trying to help companies get more bookings and visibility, you can now aggregate all local rental services in one place, making them easily discoverable for visitors.

Tuomo: So both sides benefit — merchants get higher utilization and better visibility, and marketplace builders can create platforms without worrying about backend complexity.

Tuomo: From our perspective, this new infrastructure enables more discoverable offerings, better utilization rates, and fewer operational headaches. Businesses can finally operate in a more entrepreneurial mindset and enjoy the upside.

Tuomo: The best case? The first truly global or national rental marketplace might say, “This was only possible because supply became accessible thanks to companies like TWICE that digitized the merchants.”