Sector:
Proptech
Country:
United Kingdom
Year
2023
Short Description
Hybr addresses the UK student rental market's inefficiencies by offering landlords a streamlined tenant matching system, reducing the overload from numerous applications. Its platform enhances the rental experience with innovative add-ons like a bills package, risk assessment model, and rent now, pay later options.
Founders
Hannah Chappatte
,
Co-founder & CEO
Thomas Faggionato
,
Co-founder & COO
Jake Lazarus
,
Co-founder & CTO
Why we invested
Hybr reflects our interest in supporting a rebuilt of a “broken market” from the bottom up. In rental markets defined by extreme demand, outdated processes can create friction for both landlords and rentees. By sitting at the center of the rental funnel, Hybr improves conversion, quality, access and transparency. Need more inspo for the ending.
Founder Story
Hannah Chappatte
,
Co-founder & CEO
Hannah studied liberal arts at the University of Bristol, expecting to follow the well-trodden path into consultancy. A day inside a PwC assessment center made that future feel intolerably narrow, and she walked out. Earlier, a three-month stint at Jumia in Nairobi, working in customer success and living with her brother, had shown her a different way to work: messy, mission-driven, and full of autonomy. That contrast fixed in her mind the idea that she wanted to solve a real, felt problem, not slot into a predefined role.
Back in the UK, the problem was obvious in her life. As a student renter, she had faced opaque processes, unresponsive support, and an overwhelming sense that no one owned the experience. With 3 million students spending £13 billion a year on rent, the lack of a functioning support layer felt like a structural failure. She started with what she could build alone: a simple Squarespace marketplace, cold-calling landlords and using Facebook groups to match students to housing, learning how fragile and manual the underlying systems were.
Those years exposed the real bottleneck: lettings teams drowning in inquiries without infrastructure. Hybr exists as Hannah believes renting should be predictable, transparent, and frictionless. By automating the full lettings workflow between portals and property management systems, the company’s purpose today is to put lettings on autopilot so that moving home stops being a source of anxiety and becomes a straightforward step in people’s lives.
Hannah studied liberal arts at the University of Bristol, expecting to follow the well-trodden path into consultancy. A day inside a PwC assessment center made that future feel intolerably narrow, and she walked out. Earlier, a three-month stint at Jumia in Nairobi, working in customer success and living with her brother, had shown her a different way to work: messy, mission-driven, and full of autonomy. That contrast fixed in her mind the idea that she wanted to solve a real, felt problem, not slot into a predefined role.
Back in the UK, the problem was obvious in her life. As a student renter, she had faced opaque processes, unresponsive support, and an overwhelming sense that no one owned the experience. With 3 million students spending £13 billion a year on rent, the lack of a functioning support layer felt like a structural failure. She started with what she could build alone: a simple Squarespace marketplace, cold-calling landlords and using Facebook groups to match students to housing, learning how fragile and manual the underlying systems were.
Those years exposed the real bottleneck: lettings teams drowning in inquiries without infrastructure. Hybr exists as Hannah believes renting should be predictable, transparent, and frictionless. By automating the full lettings workflow between portals and property management systems, the company’s purpose today is to put lettings on autopilot so that moving home stops being a source of anxiety and becomes a straightforward step in people’s lives.
Sector:
Proptech
Country:
United Kingdom
Year
2023
Short Description
Hybr addresses the UK student rental market's inefficiencies by offering landlords a streamlined tenant matching system, reducing the overload from numerous applications. Its platform enhances the rental experience with innovative add-ons like a bills package, risk assessment model, and rent now, pay later options.
Founders
Hannah Chappatte
,
Co-founder & CEO
Thomas Faggionato
,
Co-founder & COO
Jake Lazarus
,
Co-founder & CTO
Why we invested
Hybr reflects our interest in supporting a rebuilt of a “broken market” from the bottom up. In rental markets defined by extreme demand, outdated processes can create friction for both landlords and rentees. By sitting at the center of the rental funnel, Hybr improves conversion, quality, access and transparency. Need more inspo for the ending.
Founder Story
Hannah Chappatte
,
Co-founder & CEO
Hannah studied liberal arts at the University of Bristol, expecting to follow the well-trodden path into consultancy. A day inside a PwC assessment center made that future feel intolerably narrow, and she walked out. Earlier, a three-month stint at Jumia in Nairobi, working in customer success and living with her brother, had shown her a different way to work: messy, mission-driven, and full of autonomy. That contrast fixed in her mind the idea that she wanted to solve a real, felt problem, not slot into a predefined role.
Back in the UK, the problem was obvious in her life. As a student renter, she had faced opaque processes, unresponsive support, and an overwhelming sense that no one owned the experience. With 3 million students spending £13 billion a year on rent, the lack of a functioning support layer felt like a structural failure. She started with what she could build alone: a simple Squarespace marketplace, cold-calling landlords and using Facebook groups to match students to housing, learning how fragile and manual the underlying systems were.
Those years exposed the real bottleneck: lettings teams drowning in inquiries without infrastructure. Hybr exists as Hannah believes renting should be predictable, transparent, and frictionless. By automating the full lettings workflow between portals and property management systems, the company’s purpose today is to put lettings on autopilot so that moving home stops being a source of anxiety and becomes a straightforward step in people’s lives.
Hannah studied liberal arts at the University of Bristol, expecting to follow the well-trodden path into consultancy. A day inside a PwC assessment center made that future feel intolerably narrow, and she walked out. Earlier, a three-month stint at Jumia in Nairobi, working in customer success and living with her brother, had shown her a different way to work: messy, mission-driven, and full of autonomy. That contrast fixed in her mind the idea that she wanted to solve a real, felt problem, not slot into a predefined role.
Back in the UK, the problem was obvious in her life. As a student renter, she had faced opaque processes, unresponsive support, and an overwhelming sense that no one owned the experience. With 3 million students spending £13 billion a year on rent, the lack of a functioning support layer felt like a structural failure. She started with what she could build alone: a simple Squarespace marketplace, cold-calling landlords and using Facebook groups to match students to housing, learning how fragile and manual the underlying systems were.
Those years exposed the real bottleneck: lettings teams drowning in inquiries without infrastructure. Hybr exists as Hannah believes renting should be predictable, transparent, and frictionless. By automating the full lettings workflow between portals and property management systems, the company’s purpose today is to put lettings on autopilot so that moving home stops being a source of anxiety and becomes a straightforward step in people’s lives.