The UK lettings market is worth over £100 billion a year but remains highly fragmented. Around 20,000 small agencies manage 5.5 million properties using slow, manual processes. Maintenance requests take about 50 days, tenant matching usually gets only 1 or 2 offers per property, and most companies don’t use modern tools.
Dwelly, an AI platform based in London, raised £69 million, including a £32 million equity round led by General Catalyst, with participation from Begin Capital and S16VC, as well as a £37 million debt facility from Trinity Capital to accelerate the acquisition of independent agencies.
Since 2024, Dwelly has acquired 8 agencies and now manages more than 10,000 properties with a gross merchandise value of £ 200 million. It uses AI to speed up matchmaking, maintenance, and rent collection.
Bringing the UK’s patchwork lettings market onto one modern, AI platform.
Dwelly was founded by experienced entrepreneurs: Ilia Drozdov, who was General Manager at Uber and co-founded a rental agency managing 10,000 apartments; Dan Lifshits, former GM at Gett, responsible for £200 million GMV; and Dmitry Khanukov, who led Uber’s tech for EMEA recruitment systems.
Their mission is to unify the fragmented UK lettings market into a modern AI-powered platform. They started Dwelly to make the market more efficient and ready for change.
Dwelly’s AI system automates the whole rental process after acquisition. It creates 10 verified offers per property, compared to the usual 1 or 2, cutting letting times by a third. Its 24/7 chatbots speed up maintenance fixes by 33%, aiming for 70% or more.
The system also handles verification, contracts, payments, and price changes.
Dwelly’s unique strengths include a data flywheel that improves its AI with more agencies, protection of sellers’ brands, and clear “best offer wins” rules.
Unlike traditional agencies or simple PropTech tools, Dwelly combines mergers and acquisitions with advanced AI, outperforming fragmented competitors and platforms that don’t consolidate.
What’s next for Dwelly?
Dwelly plans to lead the £100 billion UK lettings market by aggressively acquiring companies, aiming to be in the top 15 within two years.
The new funding will help fund more acquisitions, develop the platform into a full marketplace, and expand fintech services such as rent collection and add-ons.
