Dwelly, a London-based property management platform focused on digitising independent letting agencies, has raised more than €79.3 million (£69 million) in combined equity and debt financing to accelerate its expansion across the UK rental market.
The funding includes a €36.8 million equity round led by General Catalyst, with participation from Begin Capital and S16VC, alongside a €42.55 million debt facility provided by Trinity Capital. The capital will primarily support further acquisitions and the continued rollout of its AI-powered operating platform in a highly fragmented sector.
What The Company Does
Founded in 2024, Dwelly operates an AI-enabled roll-up model that acquires independent letting agencies and integrates them into a unified, technology-driven platform. The company digitises core rental operations, including tenant-landlord matching, rent collection, maintenance coordination, pricing optimisation, and contract management.
Following each acquisition, Dwelly deploys its proprietary AI operating system to automate administrative workflows, standardise service processes, and reduce manual workloads. The platform also aggregates operational data across its portfolio, enabling continuous improvement of its AI models and more efficient property management at scale.
In addition to property listings, the system supports background checks, digital agreements, payments, in-tenancy communication, and move-out processes, creating an end-to-end transactional infrastructure for rental management.
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Market Context / Industry Background
The UK rental sector represents a large but operationally fragmented market, generating over €115 billion in annual rent roll and approximately €11.5 billion in commissions. Despite its scale, the industry remains highly labour-intensive, with nearly 20,000 letting agencies operating nationwide and the top 100 firms managing less than a third of the country’s roughly 5.5 million rental properties.
This fragmentation creates inefficiencies in service delivery, maintenance coordination, tenant matching, and pricing transparency. As a result, the sector is increasingly viewed as a candidate for consolidation through technology-led platforms that can standardise processes and improve operational efficiency.
AI-driven marketplaces and roll-up strategies are gaining traction in service industries where legacy processes are still largely analogue and data remains siloed at the agency level. By combining acquisitions with software integration, platforms like Dwelly aim to convert fragmented operations into scalable, data-driven systems.
Founder / Investor Commentary
Co-founder and CEO Ilya Drozdov stated that the company has already surpassed 10,000 properties under management within a short timeframe, positioning Dwelly among the UK’s larger letting agencies in under two years. He noted that the long-term objective is to evolve into a fully transactional rental marketplace supported by a fintech layer for rent collection and ancillary financial services.
Co-founder and CPO Dan Lifshits emphasized that the UK letting market’s operational complexity makes it well suited for AI-driven optimisation. He highlighted the platform’s role in improving tenant satisfaction, enhancing agency productivity, and streamlining interactions between landlords, tenants, and property managers through automation and intelligent tooling.
General Catalyst Partner Zeynep Yavuz described the company’s approach as a structural transformation of a traditionally analogue sector, noting that converting agency-level processes into scalable software can simultaneously improve operational efficiency, customer experience, and landlord economics.
Growth Plans / Use Of Funds
The newly raised capital will be used to continue acquiring independent letting agencies across the UK and integrating them into Dwelly’s platform. The company aims to expand its portfolio while maintaining existing agency brands and client relationships, offering transparent deal structures and competitive valuations to sellers.
Dwelly also plans to further enhance its AI capabilities across the rental lifecycle, including automated tenant communication, dynamic pricing, and maintenance workflow optimisation. The platform currently uses AI-driven chatbots, automated triaging of tenant requests, and structured coordination with service providers to reduce resolution times for maintenance issues, an area historically characterised by long delays.
By scaling its data infrastructure and automation tools, the company seeks to reduce letting timelines, increase verified tenant offers per property, and improve overall transparency in rental transactions. As the platform grows, Dwelly intends to leverage aggregated operational data to refine its AI models and strengthen its end-to-end marketplace offering.
About Dwelly
Dwelly is a London-based property technology company building an AI-powered rental marketplace through the acquisition and digitisation of independent letting agencies. Founded in 2024. The company’s mission is to modernise the rental sector by consolidating fragmented agency operations into a unified, data-driven platform that streamlines property management, tenant matching, and rental transactions.
