⭐35 Smartlayer
💰Raising $4M to build the first smart home finance AI infrastructure
Hi all, in our 35th edition we’re featuring Smartlayer, a B2B PropTech startup building the first AI smart home data infrastructure that enables explainable home finance products and allows banks to provide responsible rates for responsible homeowners.
🔍 The Problem
There is now a huge amount of smart home data available, such as heating and electricity usage, smart meter readings, and spending patterns related to the home.
But none of this is used in home finance. Mortgages and insurance products still operate like they did 200 years ago, with almost no personalisation. This mismatch leads to mispriced loans for banks and missed savings for homeowners, because rates fail to reflect how a home actually performs.
🔬 The Solution
Smartlayer delivers its solution through two simple APIs for lenders.
One API helps banks quickly assess which homeowners qualify for green mortgages or retrofit loans, using real home data instead of outdated rules.
The other API gives lenders personalised insights about each home’s running costs and upgrade needs, so they can engage their homeowners with relevant, well-timed offers.
By using deeper “open data” such as energy use, spending patterns and employment history, Smartlayer enables lenders to move beyond generic mortgages and offer better rates tailored to each household.
📈 Market Potential
The scale is enormous. Across the US, EU and UK, more than 300 million homes need energy upgrades, representing $782 billion in required investment worldwide.
In the UK alone, £570 billion worth of housing stock sits below regulatory standards, creating higher credit risk for lenders. Smartlayer’s opportunity is to become the standard scoring layer that underpins this transition, starting with the UK and expanding into the US.
🚀 Traction (📄 Onepager)
What do you think of Smartlayer? Check the one-pager below with their key metrics and financial projections
👥 Founder Team
Tahir Farooqui (Founder & CEO) is a repeat founder with deep experience in Open Finance and PropTech.
He previously built Canopy, a rental platform powered by open banking and used by over 6 million UK renters, which reached an expected exit value of £200 million. He is now applying that expertise in data and financial infrastructure at Smartlayer.
