U.S. Rentals Marketplace Dwellsy Bags $11.5 Million Seed Round

The U.S. rentals marketplace site operator Dwellsy has announced that it has raised a seed round worth $11.5 million led by Ulu Ventures.

According to a press release the round was oversubscribed and included participation from the University of Chicago, Frontiers Capital, Heroic Ventures, NJP Ventures, Blackhorn Ventures, Gaingels and the BCG Angels.

“Dwellsy’s success is due to pent-up demand for a rental housing marketplace that provides an amazing experience for renters; zero-cost, high-quality listings for residential rental owners and managers; and high-quality property rental price data for businesses,” said Jonas Bordo, Dwellsy’s CEO and cofounder. “There’s a huge base of renters and owners who need help navigating a system that’s more complex than it’s ever been—particularly with the rental fraud happening on other platforms.”

“In Dwellsy, we saw an opportunity for an enormous unserved market—renters—to get the great service they’ve always wanted and deserved,” said Steve Reale, partner, Ulu Ventures, and Dwellsy board member. “Dwellsy is the first company we’ve seen that can remake this broken market, improving lives for America’s 110 million renters and 10 million landlords—and addressing an $800 billion-plus market in the process.”

Founded in Silicon Valley in 2019 by husband and wife Jonas and Rosalind Bordo, Dwellsy is a rentals portal which claims to have over 14 million listings. The platform operates a free-to-list model and sells data intelligence as well as a packaged convenience product to renters named Dwellsy Edge. For $29.99 per year, Edge users get notifications for new listings, fraud insurance, moving assistance and other third-party perks.