Tinder-style tenant search app Badi raises $30M

It’s not easy finding the right place to live. In fact, it can be downright stressful, what with you needing to choose where to live, consider a budget, and then go trawling through various apps and websites to find somewhere decent. And it can take hours to do all of this, too.

And so Spanish startup Badi is hoping to change that. The company’s app aims to transform the market for tenants by using artificial intelligence to help users search for a roommate without agencies or intermediaries.

The app works like a kind of mix between a home search and the dating app Tinder, and has risen to become the number one service of its kind in Spain. It’s also recently expanded to other European cities, including London, Paris and Rome.

Now, its just raised $30 million in capital from US investors in order to expand further. The round was led by Goodwater Capital, which has previously backed companies including Facebook, Spotify and Twitter.

Badi mixes house hunting for tenants with Tinder’s familiar left/right swipe ality. So homeowners or renters looking for a tenant or roommate scan through possible choices, and select the people they’re interested in. Tenants and roommates meanwhile just use the platform to advertise themselves and say what they’re looking for in a rental. Matches are then allowed to contact each other to discuss a viewing and other details. The system uses AI algorithms to find the best matches between tenants and owners.

Badi’s chief executive Carlos Pierre said the general idea is to make these kinds of connections more efficient and faster.

“By 2050 the total population living in cities will increase from 54 percent to 66 percent,” Pierre said. “There will likely be a shortage of homes… This is where Badi comes in.”