Telegraph
Not so long ago, individuals looking for romance might have taken to the classified pages of a newspaper, appearing alongside adverts of landlords looking for prospective tenants.
But now, a start-up that mixes house hunting for tenants with the swipe left/swipe right mechanics of Tinder has raised tens of millions of pounds led by a US venture capitalist who backed Facebook as it plans a major push for the London property market.
Badi, a start-up headquartered in Barcelona, has raised $30m (£24m) from US backers to expand its mix of dating app and property search, the start-up's founder told The Daily Telegraph.
The start-up gained the new funding from Goodwater Capital, a US investment firm that recently led a bumper £71m round in UK challenger bank Monzo.
Goodwater's investment was led by the investment firm's co-founder Chi-Hua Chien, who was behind an early investment in Facebook in 2005 while at another venture capital firm.
While many landlords or renters looking for a roommate might normally have to struggle with letting fees or deal with showing their house to dozens of strangers, Badi claims to streamline the process.
Users are able to vet potential roommates, who reveal details in a profile, similar to that of a dating website, about what they are looking for in a flat and roommate. Users then swipe yes or no to them, similar to dating apps such as Tinder.
Badi chief executive Carlos Pierre said: "Badi makes that first connection way more efficient and faster."
After the matchmaking process, users can then instant message their potential flat mates to find out more about them.
Badi aims to take market share from rival tenant-hunting websites, such as Spareroom, as well as major classified website such as Rightmove.
"In every big market there are classic room renter platforms," Mr Pierre said, "the thing that we are offering is the user experience."
The new funding brings Badi's total raised to $45m. Other investors included Target Global, Spark Capital and Mangrove Capital.
