Not so long ago, individuals looking for romance might have taken to the classified pages of a newspaper, appearing alongside adverts of landlords looking for prospective tenants.

But now, a start-up that mixes house hunting for tenants with the swipe left/swipe right mechanics of Tinder has raised tens of millions of pounds led by a US venture capitalist who backed Facebook as it plans a major push for the London property market.

Badi, a start-up headquartered in Barcelona, has raised $30m (£24m) from US backers to expand its mix of dating app and property search, the start-up's founder told The Daily Telegraph.

The start-up gained the new funding from Goodwater Capital, a US investment firm that recently led a bumper £71m round in UK challenger bank Monzo.

Goodwater's investment was led by the investment firm's co-founder Chi-Hua Chien, who was behind an early investment in Facebook in 2005 while at another venture capital firm.