Arbio, a pioneer in the service-heavy property rental sector, is announcing a $36 million Series A funding round, bringing the company's total funding to over $45 million.
Arbio is a full-stack AI-first services company in the property management and hospitality industry, which sits right at the intersection of AI-enabled services and roll-up plays, with the ambition to become the go-to brand for short-term rental in Europe.
I spoke to Constantin Schröder, founder and CEO of Arbio, to learn more.
From the hockey field to proptech
Schröder was born and raised in Cologne, a smaller German city. For most of his life, he was a professional field hockey player:
“I played in the German Bundesliga and had aspirations to make the national team. That was everything I did back then—through high school and into university.”
He studied business at WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, a university renowned for producing founders behind companies such as Zalando, HelloFresh, and JOKR.
“It wasn’t one of the big schools,” he says, “but a lot of founders have come out of there. It gave me a solid grounding in business and entrepreneurship.”
A solution for a personal pain point
After graduating, he reconnected with his oldest friend, Paul Bäumler who’d previously founded two companies: a maths-learning platform in high school that he sold when he was just eighteen, and a corporate social responsibility startup letsact, which he launched during university and sold after graduation.
They decided to take a break and travel.
“We started in Europe, then went to Mexico and South America,” he says.
It was during that trip—in Mexico—that the idea for Arbio was born:
“We stayed in maybe ten or twelve Airbnbs,” he remembers.
“Some were beautiful, but the overall experience was often disappointing: unreliable hosts, inconsistent standards, no 24/7 check-in or support.
We realised that most small hosts couldn’t be on-site or manage round-the-clock communication. There was a clear pain point—but also a big opportunity, because Airbnbs still offered more flexibility and value than hotels.”
Modernising an outdated industry
There are 6.5+ million alternative accommodation properties in Europe,but managing them is stuck in the 20th century. Owners face unpredictable returns, endless hassle, and poor reviews, while guests experience increasing inconsistency.
Traditional property managers claim they can help owners self-manage their properties by relying on legacy software, creating a patched-up, inefficient solution.
Turning a passion project into a dynamic, scalable business
Back in Berlin, the founders of Arbio started digging into the local Airbnb market.
“At first, it was just a passion project,” he says.
“We took over a small hosting business from someone who owned a beautiful apartment in central Berlin with great reviews. We did everything ourselves—cleaning, guest communication, even setting up baby beds for families.
I remember scrubbing bathrooms with toothbrushes to get between the tiles!”
Their hands-on approach paid off.
“Within a few months, we’d significantly increased that property’s revenue,” he says.
“We introduced technology like a dynamic pricing algorithm, which made a big difference. That’s when we realised there was huge potential to improve both the guest experience and host operations.”
The team noticed that most small property managers charged the same rate year-round—maybe slightly higher at Christmas — and didn’t sync pricing across booking platforms. It therefore built an algorithm that collects vast market data — how others price similar properties — and correlates it with live search volume and demand on Booking.com, Google, etc. It updates prices daily to optimise occupancy and revenue.
“That product immediately increased income for property owners while maintaining guest satisfaction. It showed us technology could genuinely uplift both sides.”
Since then, Arbio has grown quickly, raised venture capital and venture debt, expanded into Germany, Austria, and the UK, and manage over a thousand units.
AI as Arbio’s engine
Arbio's AI-native operating system that acts as a full-stack property manager. Thanks to AI workflows, it automates distribution, accounting, operations, guest communications, and dynamic pricing, delivering higher revenues, lower costs, and peace of mind for owners. Guests benefit from personalised stays, faster responses, and standardised quality.
AI is core to Arbio, as Schröder stresses:
“We’re a technology-first, AI-first company. Everything revolves around product development that simplifies owners’ and guests’ lives.”
He explained that AI enables the company to build and iterate faster while empowering teams to develop their own internal tools.
According to Schröder, AI underpins three key areas: pricing optimisation, using machine learning across vast datasets; operational orchestration, where large language models automate communication between guests, owners, and service providers; and internal efficiency, allowing every department to solve problems autonomously.
“Long-term, I think 90–95 per cent of what’s now done manually in property management can be automated,” he added.
“Of course, physical tasks like cleaning and maintenance will still need people for quite a while—robots aren’t climbing Berlin staircases yet!”
This technology-first approach has enabled 1,000+ units currently under management across DACH, 10x revenue growth in the last two years, and 30+ strategic acquisitions completed through its dedicated M&A team.
Balancing tech in property management
Property management has traditionally been a very people-facing industry—hotel front desks and so on. Now there’s a tech wave—digital check-ins, automated communication. However, Schröder believes that software alone doesn’t solve hospitality.
“Many solutions are pure tech — they sell AI software to property managers or owners. We take a different approach: being both a property-management company and a software builder.
You need human touch to deliver real quality.
Software can’t comfort a guest stuck in the rain who can’t check in. So we use AI to enhance—not replace — people. We extend the capabilities of those who have deep hospitality knowledge, enabling them to manage more properties efficiently.”
He imagines a future where a team of 30–40 people can manage tens of thousands of units — “because we’ve automated the right things while keeping local teams for hands-on needs.” Arbio believes in a vertically integrated model—not just matching homes to guests, but guaranteeing quality.
Schröder believes that Airbnb can’t always do that; “they have too much inventory. And with AI-driven search tools like ChatGPT or Google’s travel results, I think we’ll see new discovery patterns and more niche travel platforms emerging.”
According to Schröder, last year they began heavily building out their product with AI to orchestrate all communication between guests, property owners, and service providers. He asserts:
“Our mission is to build “the one home for holiday homes,” where property owners who struggle with operations—and guests who struggle with reliability—both find a solution.
When guests tell us they had a wonderful honeymoon at one of our apartments, or an owner says we’ve made their life less stressful—that’s what drives me.”
Competing with hotels, not residents
Importantly, addressing concerns about gentrification and housing shortages, particularly in cities like Barcelona, where short-term rentals face criticism, Schröder clarified that Arbio operates under a completely different model. “We don’t use residential properties at all,” he explained.
“We only operate in spaces with commercial licenses, designed from the start for hospitality use—just like hotels”
He emphasised that this represents “a tiny fraction of the total market” and doesn’t affect local housing availability.
“Housing shortages come from financial speculation and poor city planning, not regulated holiday-home use,” he said.
“We see ourselves competing with hotels, not residents.”
With the Series A funding, Arbio plans high-speed expansion across Europe, targeting hundreds of thousands of property owners who would benefit from its AI-native management platform. The company's technology-driven approach to scaling operations positions it to handle this expansion while maintaining its lean operational model.
Eurazeo led the funding, with investors including Open Ocean and previous investors Atlantic Labs and leading angels Philipp Freise and Justin Reizes (KKR), Johannes Reck and TaoTao (GetYourGuide) and DinBisevac (Buena), amongst others.
Elise Stern, Investment Director at Eurazeo, said:“
Arbio is pioneering an AI-native model in one of Europe’s largest and least digitised service sectors. By combining technology, data, and operational excellence, they’re redefining what property owners and guests can expect.
We believe Arbio will become the category leader in the multi-billion-euro holiday rental management space, and we are excited to support them in this ambition.”
The funding will accelerate Arbio's acquisition pipeline, enhance its AI capabilities, and support expansion into new European markets where vacation rental management remains fragmented and owners are underserved.
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