Leading real estate Web site
Zillow.com today announced a $30 million Series C round of funding led by
global asset management firm Legg Mason Capital Management. The funds will
support expansion of Zillow's staff of 155 employees, including a 20-person
national advertising sales team. The capital also allows the company to
fund an accelerated timetable of products and features for homeowners,
buyers, sellers, real estate professionals and advertisers.
In just 18 months since its launch, Zillow.com has become one of the
largest real estate Web sites in the country, with 4.4 million unique users
in August 2007. Zillow provides data, information and community features
around all homes -- more than 70 million -- not just those on the market
today. In fact, nearly 40 percent of all U.S. homes have been searched on
Zillow(1). In the past year, Zillow has launched a number of community
features, with the Zillow community now making more than 25,000
contributions to the site every day, including Home Q&A, home and
neighborhood photos, and homeowners claiming and updating their own home's
page.
"At Legg Mason Capital Management, we selectively invest in best of
breed privately-held companies when we see a differentiated product, an
attractive business model, a solid brand, and a proven management team
running a company poised for extraordinary growth. We believe Zillow is
well on its way towards becoming a market-leader in a huge, and untapped
online category of online tools and information for homeowners," said Bill
Miller, Chief Investment Officer at Legg Mason Capital Management.
In addition to Legg Mason Capital Management, all prior institutional
investors participated in the funding round, including Benchmark Capital,
Technology Crossover Ventures and PAR Capital. Zillow has raised a total of
$87 million to date.
In addition to Zillow's traffic growth, the company has seen rapid use
and engagement in its community features.
- In the past year, more than one million U.S. homeowners and agents have
"claimed" homes on the site, with most adding additional data such as
updated home facts or remodel information.
- More than 50,000 questions and answers have been asked about homes
since April 2007, and Zillow Discussions has seen more than
40,000 contributions since the feature launched in July.
- Currently 286,000 user-contributed listings are on the site, including
homes for sale by agent, owner and Make Me Move.
- Zillow's self-service local ad product, Zillow EZ Ads, now has more
than 6,000 individual advertisers.
Zillow employs 155 employees and is headquartered in Seattle, with
additional ad sales offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los
Angeles, and San Diego.
Legg Mason Capital Management
Legg Mason Capital Management is one of America's leading equity
managers. It manages assets for clients around the globe including:
corporations, public funds, various government entities, endowments,
foundations, and individual investors. Clients can invest through
separately managed accounts, subadvised funds, and Legg Mason sponsored
mutual funds. Headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, Legg Mason Capital
Management is recognized for its distinct value investment process and long
history of outperforming clients' benchmarks.
Since 1982, with the introduction of Legg Mason Value Trust, Legg Mason
Capital Management has distinguished itself by applying the principles of
value investing. Today, it offers investors six equity capabilities: Value
Equity, Mid-Cap, All Cap, Growth Equity, Opportunity, and American Leading
Companies. Legg Mason Capital Management's investment team is comprised of
investment professionals who provide portfolio management and equity
analysis for $70.9 billion in separate account and pooled assets (as of
6/30/07).
Zillow.com
Zillow.com is an online real estate community where homeowners, buyers,
sellers, and real estate agents and professionals find and share vital
information about homes, for free. Launched in early 2006 with
Zestimate(TM) values and data on millions of U.S. homes, Zillow has since
opened the site to community input, data and dialogue, including "Home
Q&A." Zillow's goal is to help people become smarter about real estate --
what homes are worth, what's for sale, and what local experts have to say
about real estate and individual homes. One of the most-visited real estate
Web sites, Zillow was the only online company named by Advertising Age
magazine to its 2006 "Marketing 50" list of the most powerful consumer
brands. Zillow is headquartered in Seattle and has raised $87 million in
funding.
Source: Zillow
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