OpenRent partners with CVC

Transaction

Sell-side

Undisclosed

Role

Adviser to OpenRent on its partnership with CVC

Sector

Tech & Tech Services

Region

We advised OpenRent, the UK's leading property rental platform, on its partnership with CVC. Our combined team provided M&A, Debt Advisory and Modelling & Data Analytics support. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close later in 2026.

Founded in 2012, OpenRent has grown from an early disruptor into a leading rental platform spanning advertising, tenant search and selection, referencing, contracts, deposits, rent collection and a wide range of other property services. By combining technology with a direct landlord-to-tenant model, OpenRent has made renting simpler and significantly better value, backed by a substantial community of more than 8.8m landlords and tenants. Today, more than one in five UK tenancies runs through OpenRent.

This next phase will see OpenRent invest further in its platform and make renting even simpler for its users. The roadmap includes new tools for both landlords and tenants that take more of the admin, complexity and cost out of renting in the UK.

When we started OpenRent we set out to make renting fairer, safer and cheaper for landlords and tenants across the UK. Fourteen years later, OpenRent has become a trusted part of the market – and we still see enormous opportunity ahead. CVC shares our ambition and brings experience and resources that can help us accelerate the next stage of growth, broaden what we offer customers and create even more value for landlords and tenants.

We’re extremely thankful for the support and guidance provided by Clearwater, who were invaluable in helping us communicate our vision, and brought an exceptional array of high calibre investors to the table. We’re thrilled to be partnering with CVC for the next stage of OpenRent’s journey.
Adam Hyslop, Co-Founder and CEO, OpenRent

OpenRent has already proven that technology can transform the rental journey, but there’s still a lot left to go after. Our roadmap is full of new tools to empower landlords and tenants throughout the entire rental lifecycle, while making sure the product they already use keeps feeling delightfully simple at every turn. This partnership lets us build it all faster, with even more powerful technologies, and fulfil the vision for renting we’ve held since 2012.
Darius Bradbury, Co-Founder and CTO, OpenRent

We were extremely impressed with the quality of the process run by Clearwater, which allowed us to move with speed and conviction and focus on what matters most to Adam and Darius: our collective vision for OpenRent and the opportunities that lie ahead for the business.
Thomas Eberle, Senior Managing Director, CVC

It’s been a privilege supporting Adam and Daz and the wider OpenRent team through this investment process. At a time when AI has dramatically enhanced development speed, OpenRent is the perfect example of a platform that has built major structural moats over years which simply can’t be shortcut and which position the business extraordinarily well to continue to benefit from an accelerating flywheel and network effects. We’re very excited to see what OpenRent and CVC achieve together from here.
Finn O’Driscoll, Managing Director, Clearwater