In December 2025, London-based startup Conveyd announced it had raised £2.5 million in seed funding to address one of the UK's most frustrating processes: buying a home. Backed by Eka Ventures and supported by other investors like Portfolio Ventures and Founders Factory, the funding sets out to tackle inefficiencies in property transactions.
The average home-buying process in the UK takes five months, with a staggering proportion, over 30%, of deals collapsing along the way. Conveyd entered the scene earlier in 2025, boasting a platform that leverages automation to reduce transaction times by 70%. Their goal: to cut the wait from months to a mere six weeks.
This startup resonates deeply with me as a female founder and serial entrepreneur from the Netherlands. As someone behind initiatives like Fe/male Switch, a game-based incubator empowering women in STEM and entrepreneurship, I can’t help but connect Conveyd’s journey to broader lessons for founders, especially women across Europe. Let’s dive into what this achievement means and the actionable takeaways for us all.
Streamlining Home-Buying: The Power of Automation
Manasi Kulkarni and Stephen Cowley, Conveyd’s founders, understand inefficiency firsthand. Like many home buyers, they experienced the pain of delays when purchasing their own property. Recognizing that much of conveyancing involves repetitive admin tasks, they built a hybrid model. Their platform automates basic parts of the process, like ID checks and document verification, while still allowing legal professionals to handle complex reviews.
But what does this mean for founders? It’s a reminder to solve pain points you personally understand. Start with problems you’ve experienced, validate their importance to others, and build solutions that combine automation with human expertise.
Key Metrics: Faster and Smarter Transactions
Since March 2025, Conveyd has facilitated hundreds of transactions, with average completion times now down to six weeks. For remortgaging, some processes take under 24 hours. That’s not just convenience, it’s transformation in an emotional, high-stakes industry. No wonder investors like Eka Ventures took an interest in funding this type of impact early.
The magic lies in Conveyd’s ability to handle volume scalability while maintaining accuracy. Entrepreneurs: let this be a reminder that when pitching to investors, measurable outcomes and user insights carry more weight than vague promises. Think numbers, like how much faster or cheaper your solution is compared to the norm.
Lessons for Women Founders
1. Combine Your Strengths and Personal Story.
Kulkarni’s background, engineering leadership at Monzo and Thoughtworks, paired perfectly with her personal annoyance at home-buying delays. Women often undervalue the assets their experience brings to new industries. Instead, double down on what you know and why it matters.
2. Seek Smart Money from Vested Investors.
Eka Ventures and Founders Factory not only offer funding but strategic networks. Especially as a female founder, building a support base of engaged backers ensures you face fewer barriers.
3. Leverage Diversity for Better Solutions.
Kulkarni openly shares how Conveyd’s diverse team benefits decision-making processes across the board. Diversity, and yes, that includes more women heading startups, isn’t just wishful thinking. It creates better financial and operational outcomes.
Avoiding Common Mistakes
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Ignoring Human Expertise: In tech-driven industries, automating everything can backfire. Conveyd found the right balance between AI handling menial admin and legal specialists offering nuanced reviews. Entrepreneurs often lose sight of where humans should stay involved.
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Overpromising on Timelines: Automation may be the buzzword, but trust is the foundation of industries like real estate or law. Conveyd wisely introduced the platform cautiously, proving its metrics before scaling. As a founder burning with ambition, I know the temptation of unveiling everything all at once. Resist.
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Neglecting Data Focus: Vague ideas without key statistics are hard to defend. In Conveyd’s case, reducing transaction times to six weeks provides not only validation but also a hook for future marketing efforts.
Other Insights from This Story
Women in entrepreneurship hear countless lectures about "breaking into male-dominated sectors," yet tangible resources remain limited. Kulkarni’s achievement highlights how combining tech and empathy where regulations seem outdated can gain traction. You don’t always have to disrupt everything. Sometimes, incremental solutions meet massive gaps.
Moreover, her journey demonstrates how funding isn't a mere survival tool but instead an amplifier of ideas. Many women hesitate to seek external investment, like I chose to bootstrap Fe/male Switch until later stages. But when aligned with supportive investors, you can challenge those five-month waiting periods, or perhaps, something equally stagnant in other spaces.
For Entrepreneurs: How to Start Building Your Conveyd
Do you have an idea brewing for improving outdated systems in law, property, or finance? Take a moment to outline these steps:
- Look for repetitive tasks begging for automation.
- Research inefficiencies and validate pain points with actual users.
- Build a prototype that combines software efficiency with high-quality human touchpoints.
- Pitch with facts. Highlight the specific time or cost reduction, and demonstrate early traction.
And if you’re tight on budget, remember that platforms like Figma AI and collaborative tools exist to design processes for free early on.
Conclusion
Conveyd’s success offers a playbook for mission-driven founders, especially women in Europe, who want to disrupt outdated, high-friction industries. Their focus on one clear goal, backed by data-driven outcomes and a complementary team, allowed them to secure £2.5 million, scale rapidly, and restore simplicity to home-buying.
Whether you’re building something related to AI, finance, or even a social impact initiative like Fe/male Switch, the lesson here is universal. Find what frustrates you. Learn why others feel the same. Then commit to solving every part of the problem your way. It’s not about perfection from day one, it’s about owning your impact, week by week.
FAQ
1. What is Conveyd, and what problem does it aim to solve?
Conveyd is a London-based startup that uses AI to automate parts of the conveyancing process, reducing UK home-buying times from five months to six weeks. Read about Conveyd’s solution
2. How much seed funding did Conveyd raise, and who led the round?
Conveyd raised £2.5 million in a seed funding round led by Eka Ventures and supported by investors like Portfolio Ventures and Founders Factory. Learn about the funding details
3. What inefficiencies does Conveyd address in the home-buying process?
It tackles delays caused by admin-heavy conveyancing processes, leveraging AI automation for tasks like ID checks, document verification, and mortgage reporting. Discover the impact on conveyancing
4. Who are Conveyd’s co-founders, and what inspired them?
Manasi Kulkarni and Stephen Cowley, both former Monzo and Thoughtworks employees, founded Conveyd after experiencing personal frustrations with delayed property transactions. Learn about the founders
5. How has Conveyd transformed transaction times in the UK home-buying market?
Conveyd cuts transaction times by 70%, achieving an average completion timeline of six weeks, compared to the industry norm of five months. Explore Conveyd’s success metrics
6. Why is diversity emphasized in Conveyd’s team structure?
Manasi Kulkarni highlights how a diverse team enhances decision-making processes and drives better operational outcomes in their AI-driven platform. Understand Conveyd’s team approach
7. How does Conveyd balance automation with human expertise?
Its hybrid model allows AI to automate repetitive tasks while legal professionals handle complex, nuanced reviews, ensuring reliability and trust in high-value decisions. Read about the hybrid approach
8. What advice does Conveyd’s journey offer for entrepreneurs?
Kulkarni advises founders to address pain points they personally understand, validate user needs, and pitch real, measurable outcomes to potential investors. Explore lessons for entrepreneurs
9. How does Conveyd’s platform perform in remortgaging transactions?
Remortgaging processes using Conveyd can be completed in under 24 hours, showing high scalability and efficiency. Learn about Conveyd’s remortgaging track record
10. What role do investors play in Conveyd’s growth?
Beyond funding, Conveyd’s investors, including Eka Ventures, provide strategic networks for scaling and improving operations. Check out Eka Ventures’ role in funding
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp's expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the "gamepreneurship" methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.
About the Publication
Fe/male Switch is an innovative startup platform designed to empower women entrepreneurs through an immersive, game-like experience. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic "without any funding and without any code," this non-profit initiative has evolved into a comprehensive educational tool for aspiring female entrepreneurs.The platform was co-founded by Violetta Shishkina-Bonenkamp, who serves as CEO and one of the lead authors of the Startup News branch.
Mission and Purpose
Fe/male Switch Foundation was created to address the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurship space. The platform aims to skill-up future female tech leaders and empower them to create resilient and innovative tech startups through what they call "gamepreneurship". By putting players in a virtual startup village where they must survive and thrive, the startup game allows women to test their entrepreneurial abilities without financial risk.
Key Features
The platform offers a unique blend of news, resources,learning, networking, and practical application within a supportive, female-focused environment:
- Skill Lab: Micro-modules covering essential startup skills
- Virtual Startup Building: Create or join startups and tackle real-world challenges
- AI Co-founder (PlayPal): Guides users through the startup process
- SANDBOX: A testing environment for idea validation before launch
- Wellness Integration: Virtual activities to balance work and self-care
- Marketplace: Buy or sell expert sessions and tutorials
Impact and Growth
Since its inception, Fe/male Switch has shown impressive growth:
- 5,000+ female entrepreneurs in the community
- 100+ startup tools built
- 5,000+ pieces of articles and news written
- 1,000 unique business ideas for women created
Partnerships
Fe/male Switch has formed strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. In January 2022, it teamed up with global website builder Tilda to provide free access to website building tools and mentorship services for Fe/male Switch participants.
Recognition
Fe/male Switch has received media attention for its innovative approach to closing the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. The platform has been featured in various publications highlighting its unique "play to learn and earn" model.
