Dwelly, an AI-enabled rollup of letting agencies, has raised a £69m round in equity and debt funding, led by General Catalyst.
Founded in 2024, Dwelly acquires and digitises independent rental agencies under an AI-enabled rollup model. The funding aims to support the company’s growth through a series of M&A deals across the UK. The property platform uses AI to enhance the user experience throughout the property letting cycle allowing for tenant-landlord matchmaking, maintenance and rent collection.
As well as General Catalyst, Dwelly's latest raise saw participation from Begin Capital and S16VC, the raise included £32m in equity and a £37m debt facility from asset manager Trinity Capital.
“With property management, employees and branches are mainly doing communication. Picking up the phone, registering applications, there’s a lot of back and forth and it’s very labour intensive,” Dwelly cofounder Dan Lifshits tells Sifted.
“Property management is the same, you write to the property manager if you have an issue. That's where the world is changing and where we believe that, instead of doing things manually, they can be done with AI instead.”
New wave of rollup startups
Over the past year, there has been a new wave of rollup startups emerging across Europe, buying older businesses and deploying their software throughout their new acquisitions.
Dwelly has so far acquired eight companies across the UK and currently manages over £200m in gross merchandise volume. After an acquisition is completed, Dwelly integrates its AI systems to automate functions and reduce manual overhead.
“Our vision is to take on the whole journey of the tenant, landlord and contractor altogether and become a one-stop-shop for anything related to property management,” adds Lifshits.
“Dwelly exemplifies what we look for — founders with proven track records at Uber and Gett, now consolidating a massive, fragmented market through strategic acquisitions and AI-powered operations. They’ve reached top-15 scale in under two years while improving outcomes across the board,” says Marc Bhargava, managing director at General Catalyst in a statement.
As AI adoption increases, Dwelly faces growing competition with rollup startups continuing to emerge across Europe working to automate property letting processes such as the likes of both Germany-based Buena and Ralph.
