This UK PropTech Startup Just Hit a $250M Valuation—and AI Is the Reason

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-24

A Manchester-based company you might not have heard of just landed a massive investment that values it at over $250 million. And the secret sauce? Artificial intelligence. Street Group, formerly known as Agent Software, builds tools for the UK residential property market. Think of it as the operating system for estate agents and letting agents. Now, with backing from Hg—a heavyweight investor in European and transatlantic software firms—the company is poised to accelerate its AI-driven transformation. ### The Deal at a Glance The investment values Street Group at approximately $250 million (around £200 million). Hg, which manages over $110 billion in assets, led the round. Previous backer PXN Group, a venture capital firm focused on high-growth businesses in Northern England, also participated. For context, Hg's portfolio includes about 60 companies worth over $190 billion in total enterprise value. They know a thing or two about scaling software businesses. ### What Street Group Actually Does Founded in 2015 by siblings Tom and Heather Staff, Street Group started as a simple CRM for estate agents. Today, it's a full ecosystem: - **Street.co.uk**: Core CRM for managing client relationships - **Spectre**: Prospecting and lead generation platform - **Cortex**: An AI-native product that lets agents build and deploy their own AI agents The company serves thousands of estate and letting agency branches across the UK. And with over 200 employees, it's not a small operation anymore. ### Why AI Matters Here The property industry has been slow to adopt technology. Most agents still rely on legacy systems or spreadsheets. Street Group is changing that by embedding AI directly into daily workflows. "We built Street to fundamentally change how estate and letting agents work," said Heather and Tom Staff, co-CEOs and co-founders. "AI is central to that mission." Cortex, their AI agent builder, is particularly interesting. It allows customers to create custom AI assistants that handle tasks like lead qualification, appointment scheduling, and property matching. No coding required. ### What This Means for the US Market While Street Group focuses on the UK, the implications for US proptech are clear. Residential real estate faces similar challenges on both sides of the Atlantic: fragmented software stacks, inefficient workflows, and growing demand for personalized service. Hg's transatlantic expertise could help Street Group expand into North America. The firm has a strong presence there and understands how to scale software businesses across borders. ### The Founders' Vision Tom and Heather Staff remain majority controlling shareholders. They'll continue to lead the company, which is rare in growth-stage deals. "In Hg we have found a partner who shares our long-term ambition," they said. Louis Kinsella, partner at Hg, added: "Street is exactly the kind of business we love to back. It's a category leader with a technical edge, loved by its customers, and deeply embedded in their daily workflows." ### What's Next With this funding, Street Group plans to: - Accelerate product innovation - Deepen AI capabilities - Expand its team - Potentially enter new markets The company is already growing revenue at more than 16% annually. With Hg's backing, that pace could accelerate significantly. ### The Bigger Picture This deal is part of a broader trend: AI is reshaping traditional industries, and proptech is no exception. Street Group's success shows that vertical software companies—those that focus on a single sector—can build massive value by solving specific problems. For US professionals watching European startup news, Street Group is one to keep an eye on. It's not just another funding round. It's a signal that AI-powered proptech is coming of age. And if the founders have their way, estate agents everywhere will soon wonder how they ever worked without it.