Zazume, the Barcelona‑based proptech company that digitises the full residential rental lifecycle, has closed a €2.5 million funding round as it moves into an aggressive consolidation phase targeting the deeply fragmented professional property management sector in Spain. The round was co‑led by London‑based Nordstar, a long‑standing backer of the company, and GTV Capital, a Spanish family office making its first entry into Zazume's shareholding structure. Existing investor Sabadell Venture Capital also participated, alongside several other family offices, through a combination of fresh capital and the conversion of previously contributed funds.

The raise brings Zazume's total fundraising since inception to €7.8 million and follows a €2.3 million round completed in April 2025, which was used to upgrade the company's proprietary technology platform and achieve operational profitability. The timing of the new capital is deliberate: Zazume has reached financial break‑even, meaning it can sustain current operations without external funding, but has chosen to pursue a more ambitious growth path rather than scale gradually from cash flows alone.

The Opportunity in Spain's Rental Market

Spain's residential rental sector is large, growing, and remarkably fragmented. A significant proportion of rental properties are managed by small, generalist real estate agencies that prioritise property sales and treat rental management as a secondary business line. These agencies typically lack the technology infrastructure, specialist expertise, or scale to deliver the level of service that modern landlords and tenants expect, and they often struggle to compete with the administrative burden of managing rental income guarantees, tenant screening, maintenance coordination, and non‑payment risk.

Zazume's analysis of this landscape identifies a clear structural opportunity: professional rental management is underserved by dedicated operators, and a technology‑first platform with the right financial services infrastructure can both deliver better outcomes for landlords and acquire management portfolios from agencies looking to monetise that business line and focus on their core sales activities.

The company currently manages 3,500 properties across Spain and has guaranteed more than €40 million in rental income to its property owners. Its platform offers landlords a comprehensive service layer including AI‑driven tenant screening, automated rent collection, deposit financing, property maintenance coordination, non‑payment insurance, and personalised financing options. For tenants, it provides a fully digital experience from property search and viewing scheduling through to contract signing and ongoing tenancy management.

A Capital Deployment Strategy Anchored in Acquisitions

More than 50 percent of the fresh €2.5 million will be directed toward acquiring residential property management portfolios from smaller agencies in provincial capitals across Spain. The strategic logic is straightforward: rather than building scale slowly through organic customer acquisition, Zazume can immediately take on the existing tenants, landlords, and managed assets of agencies that choose to exit the rental management business. This accelerates both revenue and managed property volumes while giving acquired clients an immediate technology upgrade.

The company has already demonstrated this model in practice. In April 2026, Zazume completed the acquisition of Landa Propiedades' rental portfolio in Zaragoza, marking the first in what the company expects will be a series of similar transactions. It is targeting four such agreements before the end of the current year, with a focus on provincial capitals where rental demand is growing but professional management infrastructure remains thin. The remaining portion of the funding will be allocated to sales and marketing activities to drive organic growth in parallel with the acquisition programme.

Jeroen Merchiers, CEO and co‑founder, described the company as having identified a huge opportunity to rapidly drive it forward while helping to professionalise an important sector. The targets are achievable given the company's current trajectory: Zazume expects to reach more than 5,000 managed properties by the end of 2026, representing growth of over 40 percent from its current base, and is targeting more than 10,000 managed properties by 2027.

Founders With Relevant Pedigree

Zazume was founded in 2021 by Jeroen Merchiers and Guillermo Ceballos. Merchiers previously served as Managing Director for Airbnb across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, giving him direct experience of the operational complexity involved in scaling a marketplace‑style business across fragmented residential property markets. Ceballos founded GymForLess, a successful fitness platform that was acquired by Sodexo in 2018, and brings both consumer product development experience and an understanding of how to grow a subscription‑style service business in the Spanish market.

Ole Ruch, Managing Partner of Nordstar, said the fund believes Zazume is destined to become the leader of residential rental in Southern Europe, establishing the foundations with proprietary AI technology and having proven the optimisation of residential rental management through its quality services and added value.

That endorsement from a fund that has backed the company across multiple rounds carries weight. Nordstar, whose partnership network includes former WeWork executives with deep real estate technology experience, has maintained conviction in Zazume through the technology development phase and is now doubling down as the company enters the more capital‑intensive but commercially accelerated acquisition phase.

Spain's long‑term residential rental market is expanding structurally. Rising property prices are extending the period during which younger households rent rather than buy, and the government's policy push toward expanding the professionally managed rental stock creates regulatory tailwinds for operators that can demonstrate quality and compliance. Zazume's combination of technology, financial services, and an acquisition‑led growth model positions it to capitalise on those trends at a pace that organic growth alone would not support.