One of the UK’s fastest growing property websites, zoopla.co.uk, has secured £3.75 million in new funding.
The money comes from venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Octopus Ventures.
zoopla.co.uk has now raised a total of almost £5.5m with the latest funding being used to further develop the company’s technology platform, grow its team and boost its sales and marketing efforts. In addition to Atlas Venture and Octopus Ventures, other backers of zoopla.co.uk include Nauiokas Park LLP as well as a number of well-respected angel investors including Sherry Coutu, Robin Klein of the Accelerator Group, Simon Murdoch, Andy Phillipps and William Reeve.
Fred Destin, Partner at Atlas Venture and repeat backer of zoopla.co.uk remarked that “great businesses emerge in times of hardship”. While Alex Macpherson, Chief Executive of Octopus Ventures said:
“The rapid success zoopla.co.uk has enjoyed since its launch proves there is a clear gap in the market for a service that integrates the requirements of buyers, sellers, owners and estate agents. It is an extremely compelling proposition managed by a team of highly seasoned, successful entrepreneurs with whom Octopus has a longstanding relationship and we are delighted to be working with the zoopla.co.uk team.”
zoopla.co.uk was launched in January 2008 and has grown from strength to strength, clocking over five million visits and 40 million page views in its first 12 months. The company says this makes it one of the top five most-visited property websites in the UK.
zoopla.co.uk provides residential property market information including free, instant value estimates on all 27 million UK homes. It encourages user generated content and received over one million user contributions to its website in 2008 alone.
Features, like TemptMe!™ and AskMe!™, allow consumers to gain an insight into the market and discover information they won’t find anywhere else, while the website’s estate agent directory, FindAnAgent and the AskAnAgent feature allow users to contact local professionals directly for their expertise.
zoopla.co.uk is soon to launch an innovative “pay-for-performance” based model for estate agent listings. The company say that this no-risk, performance-based model will make zoopla.co.uk the most cost-effective way for agents to gain exposure and leads.
A statement from the company about the new funding quoted Alex Chesterman, founder and CEO of Zoopla.co.uk, as saying:
“With our latest funding we will continue to champion transparency and efficiency in the property market and are focussed on empowering users with information and helping estate agents make the most of their marketing spend. The challenging housing market outlook further increases the relevance of zoopla.co.uk’s services at a time when consumers’ thirst for information is increasing in the face of difficult property decisions and estate agents seek more cost effective ways of obtaining enquiries and building their inventory pipeline.”
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Interesting for an unprofitable Zillow copycat.,I guess it was always an op in the uk and I always wondered why Zillow didnt move to the UK quickly.
Wonder what the valuation was?
The challenge they have is attracting enough consumer eyeballs to make a viable PPR model stack up. You can’t help feeling that there will be further material consolidation in the portal market shortly and therefore not sure this helps zoopla.
Zoopla seem to have it right. The massive investment really does show that the Internet has come of age for the dissemination of information particularly in the field of property and property marketing. Let’s wish Zoopla al the best for the future.
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