Catalytic activity of a series of Fe-Zn double-metal cyanide (DMC) complexes with varying structural and acidic properties has been investigated for the synthesis of hyperbranched polyesters (HPs) from glycerol and succinic acid/adipic acid. The DMC complexes were prepared using different complexing and co-complexing agents. Hydrophobicity of the surface, Lewis acidity and micro-mesoporous architecture are the critical features of DMC enabled control on gelation process in preparing HPs of high degree of branching. The micro-mesoporous architecture of DMC acts as a nano-reactor for reactant molecules to form primary condensation products which further polymerize yielding dendrimers. Hyperbranched polyesters of degree of branching as high as 90% could be achieved without gelation using DMC catalysts. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.