Proptech Dwelly raises £130m led by EQT Growth and General Catalyst
This article covers Dwelly, a proptech startup, which has raised £130m in a growth funding round to accelerate its acquisition-led, AI-driven operating model across the UK lettings market. The funding aims to support acquisitions of independent agencies, deepen automation in lettings and property management and develop landlord and tenant financial products, affecting landlords, tenants and local lettings agencies across the UK.
Dwelly, a proptech startup focused on residential lettings, has raised £130 million in a growth funding round to accelerate its acquisition-led, AI-driven operating model across the UK lettings market. The capital will be used to buy independent agencies, deepen automation across lettings and property management, and build landlord and tenant financial products — a push into a large, fragmented sector where operational scale and compliance are increasingly important.
Why it matters
The UK lettings market is both sizeable and operationally intensive. Around 20,000 firms manage roughly 5.5 million rental properties and more than £100 billion in annual rent, and rising compliance and tenant-expectation pressures are forcing firms to rethink how they deliver service. Dwelly’s model blends acquisitions with a shared AI platform to standardise workflows, consolidate customer records and roll out process improvements across a network of local operators. If successful, that can materially lift productivity for property managers while preserving local brands and relationships.
Dwelly already manages 15,000 properties, putting it among the top-10 agencies in the UK by portfolio size, and oversees about £350 million in rent roll. The company says its approach lets each property manager handle more than 300 units, up from roughly 100 under traditional models.
Inside the product
Dwelly buys local lettings agencies and migrates their operational tasks onto a common AI infrastructure rather than replacing local brands or teams. The platform routes all tenant and landlord communications, keeping a continuously updated context for each customer. Automated "AI agents" handle transactional tasks across tenant enquiries, onboarding, rent collection, maintenance, compliance, contracts and inter-party communication. Routine questions, policy checks, record updates, maintenance provider selection, parts requests and appointment coordination are handled automatically, with exceptions escalated to agency staff.
Agency staff are positioned as supervisors and advisors rather than transaction processors. According to Dwelly, that allows employees to focus more on advisory work while the system increases throughput and consistency. The business also says process improvements implemented in one agency can be rolled out across the network, offering potential operational leverage as the portfolio grows.
Planned use of funds includes continued acquisitions of high-quality independent agencies across the UK, further automation across lettings, property management, rent collection, compliance and maintenance, development of new financial products for landlords and tenants, and selective expansion into European markets.
Who are the investors?
The round combines £72 million in equity with an upsized debt facility. Equity backers include institutional and venture investors as well as individual participants.
Lead and notable participants:
- EQT Growth (lead investor)
- General Catalyst (lead investor)
- s16vc
- Begin Capital
- DVC
- CEOs of Legora, Synthesia and ElevenLabs (founder executives of companies active in property services and generative AI)
- Philipp Freise, Partner and Co-Head of European Private Equity at KKR
Trinity Capital increased Dwelly’s debt facility to complete the financing package.
In the announcement, Nils Petter Nygaard, Managing Director at EQT Growth, said:
Ilya, Dan and the team are exceptional founders building one of the most exciting AI companies in Europe. EQT has invested in business services for decades, and Dwelly represents a fundamentally different model. We believe the era of simply aggregating agencies for financial returns is over. Dwelly is reinventing service delivery by applying AI to every part of the operating model, creating a better experience for customers while redefining how residential lettings are delivered. We're proud to support them on their journey to build a global category leader.
In the announcement, Zeynep Yavuz-Willson, Partner at General Catalyst, said:
Dwelly has reimagined the tenant experience: a question answered in seconds, a viewing booked in minutes, a contract signed without ever walking into an agency office. Ilya and Dan built their way into becoming the industry itself, rebuilding it from the inside with obsessive precision. This is a blueprint for European services transformed by AI, delivered by founders with the drive to take on the hardest, most fragmented markets, and the patience of capital behind them to see it through.
In the announcement, Craig Fox, Managing Director of Tech Lending at Trinity Capital, said:
Dwelly has continued to execute since its previous financing, growing its agency network and scaling its integration model. We are pleased to support the company as it expands across the UK lettings market.
If you're researching potential backers in this space:
- Explore our list of proptech venture capital firms in the UK
- Browse our directory of proptech angel investors in the UK
Founder perspective
In the announcement, Ilya Drozdov, Co-founder & CEO at Dwelly, said:
Dwelly is AI-first by default: we assume AI should be able to do every operational task. That changes what a lettings agent can be. AI takes over the transactional layer, while our people become world-class advisors to landlords and tenants. The goal is to bring a private-wealth level of service to one of the country's least trusted industries.
The quote captures the company’s thesis: shift routine operational work to automation and elevate human staff into advisory roles that require judgement and relationship management.
The bigger picture
Dwelly’s raise highlights investor appetite for business models that combine consolidation with software-driven operations in fragmented service sectors. For the UK proptech ecosystem, the deal is a signal that capital providers are willing to back asset-light, AI-first approaches that aim to reshape labour-intensive markets. As Dwelly pushes into deeper automation and selective European expansion, its progress will be a useful case study for whether acquisition-led platform models plus shared AI infrastructure can deliver higher-quality, scalable lettings services without eroding local trust or compliance standards.
They've invested in Dwelly
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| Investors | Investment Focus | Startup Investments | Round Size | Connect |
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 General Catalyst( ) GC is an investment and transformation company that partners with entrepreneurs ... London  | ||||
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 Begin Capital( ) Begin Capital is a London-based early-stage venture capital fund that backs bold... London | ||||
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 Trinity Capital( ) Phoenix, US  | ||||
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