As the real estate market regains some life after an extended dip, people are beginning to get comfortable with the idea of selling their home again and, in turn, getting comfortable with looking around for that special place. To help in an increasingly fast-paced market, technology-powered real estate brokerage, Redfin, has been on a mission to help people not only find the right house, but to help potential sellers get feedback on the price of their home from hundreds of potential buyers.
On the heels of launching a series of these “Price Whisperer”-like tools that aim to reduce the costs of the real estate search process for both homebuyers and sellers, Redfin is doing a little price whispering of its own. The company today announced that it has raised $50 million in late-stage growth capital from a handful of investors, beginning with Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price Associates.
The new round, which also includes contributions from the company's existing investors, like Greylock Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Vulcan Capital, Globespan Capital Partners and The Hillman Company, brings the company's total funding to just under $100 million. In addition, from what we've been hearing from sources, the round values its online brokerage and search business in the ballpark of $500 million.
With the new injection of capital, Redfin becomes yet another addition to the list of companies pursuing growth capital from backers outside the usual confines of the venture capital world. The investment is the second of its kind that T. Rowe Price, in particular has made in recent months, following its investment in MongoDB last month, for example.
The new capital will also likely help the Seattle-based company gear up for IPO, although that may not happen in the near future, according to the company. Having the help of late-stage firms like Tiger Global may allow the company to extend its runway as a private company and avoid going the route of an IPO.
Regardless, the new capital will allow Redfin to continue expanding its current marketshare, and go deeper, which according to the latest data, sits at around 3 and 4 percent in the company's hometown of Seattle. Redfin currently operates in 22 markets and will use its growth capital not only to expand its marketshare within these cities, but broaden its scope within the U.S.
While it nominally competes with the likes of Trulia and Zillow, the company has aimed to differentiate itself by becoming more of a search and brokerage service, rather than the Kayak-style approach (of becoming a lead generation funnel) of some of its competitors.
Redfin, in turn, offers access to live agents in an effort to help control and optimize customer satisfaction. The company claims that it's able to save homebuyers an average of $7,500 by giving homebuyers access to tools that help reduce the buy-side real estate fees usually incurred at closing. It's done that through a handful of product launches over the last year, including tools that help those selling their homes get a better feel for market prices and those that allow buyers to get a better understanding of the landscape and when they're about to step into a bidding war.
For more, find Redfin at home here and check out TechCrunch's in depth coverage to follow.
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/IQEdyqJGVCI/
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