University of Bristol graduate shines

Hannah Chappatte, a Liberal Arts graduate, started Hybr when she was just 22 to “fix the UK’s broken student rental market”.

Hybr collects data from trustworthy students to match them with reputable landlords who have suitable homes. The result, says Hannah, is a fix to the “toxic relationship” between the two groups, saving both sides time and money and ultimately making the rental market more efficient.

Hannah founded Hybr after experiencing the anxiety of finding a place to rent, while hearing from students across the UK struggling to find housing.

Since it was founded in 2020 it has generated over £10million in sales for landlords and it has vastly expanded its “student community”.

From Quarter 4 2021 to Quarter 4 2022 Hybr grew its revenue by 1,456% and increased the number of rooms in its portfolio 18-fold.

Hannah, Hybr’s CEO, said: “I am so excited for 2022, it’s going to be a huge year for us. We have already built a beloved platform with a matchmaking model where we capture key data points from students to accurately match them to relevant landlord profiles.

“Through highly tailored matches, we build trusted relationships with students and give landlords back their time.”

In January 2022, Hybr raised £920,000 in a pre-seed round and it plans to raise another £2.5million this spring, to expand the product across the UK and support thousands more students.

It plans to bring on an additional 100,000 rooms over the next three months.

Hybr was helped in its early days with a £5,000 grant from a University of Bristol startup competition, £10,000 from Montagu Evans’ Disrupter in Real Estate Award and funding from the Princes Trust.