Tract

Tract (Tract UK Ltd) was a London proptech founded in May 2023 by Jamie Rumbelow and Henry Dashwood to speed up Britain's planning system. It iterated through several products: a site-sourcing tool for developers, a land-appraisal tool for landowners, a tech-enabled land-promotion service and finally Tract Editor, an AI platform for drafting planning documents. It raised a £744,000 pre-seed round in April 2024 co-led by Ada Ventures and Concept Ventures. In March 2025 the founders stopped operations, having generated no revenue in almost two years, and returned the remaining cash to investors. Their public post-mortem blamed a small, fragmented and change-resistant UK property market, customers unwilling to pay even at steep discounts, overspending on an office, branding and a US trip, and overlapping founder skill sets. The company passed a special resolution to wind up on 13 June 2025, with a declaration of solvency, and was dissolved on 3 October 2026.

Operations ceased in March 2025 and leftover capital was returned to investors; the company went through a members' voluntary liquidation (liquidator appointed June 2025, final meeting returned July 2026) and was dissolved on 3 October 2026. The founders published a detailed post-mortem on the company site.

The founders' own conclusions: validate willingness to pay before raising venture money, pick a market large and receptive enough for venture-scale returns, and stay lean rather than spending on an office, branding and travel. They also advised hiring to fill genuine skill gaps instead of duplicating the founders' strengths.