Dwelly secures £69m to accelerate expansion of AI-led rental marketplace
UK property technology platform Dwelly has raised £69m ($94m) in joint buyout and debt financing to expand its AI-driven installation of independent letting agencies across Britain.
The capital raising includes £32m of equity capital led by General Catalyst, with participation from Begin Capital and S16VC, and a £37m debt facility provided by Trinity Capital. The funding will support further acquisitions as Dwelly seeks to consolidate the UK’s fragmented rental market.
Dwelly uses an AI-powered folding model, finding independent agencies and integrating them with its technology platform. The UK rental property market generates more than £100bn a year and commissions of around £10bn, yet it remains fragmented, with around 20,000 companies operating across the country. The top 100 make up less than 30 percent of the country’s 5.5 million rental properties.
Since launching its acquisition strategy by 2024, Dwelly has acquired eight agencies and now holds over £200m of gross merchandise value (GMV). The company says it has surpassed 10,000 properties under management, placing it among the UK’s 15 largest letting agencies in less than two years.
Founder and CEO Ilya Drozdov said the group’s ambition is to build a dynamic rental platform into a fully functional marketplace, supported by an integrated fintech layer for rent collection and related services.
Dwelly’s platform automates key stages of the rental process, including tenant screening, contract issuance, payments, care coordination and price adjustments between tenants.
The company says its system increases the average number of guaranteed offers per property from one or two less than the standard model to nearly 10. It says this has reduced average approval times by almost a third and introduced a more transparent “best wins” model aimed at reducing bias in tenant selection.
Maintenance procedures are also automated. Dwelly uses 24/7 tenant chatbots, automated follow-up requests and AI-driven follow-up of maintenance providers. In an industry where maintenance requests can take up to 50 days to resolve, the company says it has already reduced resolution times by 33 percent, with further reductions expected.
General Catalyst partner Zeynep Yavuz described Dwelly’s approach as a “system-level AI architecture” capable of transforming the UK’s high-performance service sector into a risk-free software-led model.
The funding will allow Dwelly to continue to acquire agencies while maintaining its recognition and local client relationships, providing what it describes as a clear exit route for agency owners.
By increasing the number of buildings under management, Dwelly is also gaining access to more data to refine its AI models, underscoring what it argues is a cumulative benefit in automation and efficiency.
As institutional investors show growing interest in using AI in traditional service industries, Dwelly’s rapid expansion reflects a wider shift in the UK rental market towards integration, digital infrastructure and data-led property management.
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Dwelly secures £69m to accelerate expansion of AI-led rental marketplace
