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Redfin closes $12 million funding led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson

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redfin_funding.jpgOnline real estate broker Redfin Corporation announced a $12 million series C financing led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Madrona Venture Group, Vulcan Capital, BEV Capital and The Hillman Company, investors in previous financings, also participated in this round. Redfin has raised $20.8 million to date. In conjunction with the funding, Redfin launched its online real estate service in the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore areas.

Redfin will use the proceeds to continue national expansion, with plans to open in Chicago this year, and to further the company’s investment in its market-leading website for buying and selling homes.

Since Redfin’s last round of financing in May 2006, the company has completed more than $350 million in real estate transactions, saved its home-buying customers nearly $6 million in commissions, increased revenues by more than 2,000 percent, expanded into four new markets, and been featured on “60 Minutes.” As part of the funding, DFJ partner Emily Melton will join Redfin’s board as a director.

Originally posted on July 18, 2007 @ 11:40 am

Real estate search engine Trulia.com closes $10 financing

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trulia.jpgTrulia.com, a residential real estate search engine that helps consumers find homes for sale that meet specific criteria and make smarter real estate decisions, has secured a $10 million Series C round of funding led by Sequoia Capital. The round also includes previous venture investors Accel Partners and Fayez Sarofim & Co. The investment will fund Trulia’s general operations and enable the company to expand its team of real estate and search technology experts, deepen marketing and sales efforts and develop new products and services aimed at helping consumers make smarter decisions about buying and selling homes.

“Trulia has become the fastest-growing Internet real estate site, with double-digit month-over-month growth and approximately 1.5 million unique monthly visitors. We’re really excited to build on our progress to date and our potential as a media and technology company in the real estate industry to empower consumers and real estate professionals,” said Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia.

Originally posted on May 25, 2007 @ 1:41 pm

Elementeo’s CEO the buzz of TIEcon

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The buzz on the expo floor during weekend’s TIEcon in Santa Clara, California was about Elementeo. Specifically, the buzz was about the company CEO. You see, Anshul Samar is only 13 years old and his company injects fun into learning Chemistry. Oh, Chemistry… (put flashback video here…).

VentureBeat interviewed Anshul Samar which includes his elevator pitch in securing funding. It is without a doubt that this kid will be getting one.

Originally posted on May 21, 2007 @ 11:04 am

Rock You! gets more funding to rock you more

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rockyou.jpgRock You!, provider of widgets on the web, announced fresh funding from Partech International. Founded in 2006, RockYou! serves over 150 million widget views per day to over 200 countries.

Partech International led the series B round with existing investors, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Ventures for an undisclosed amount. The funding will enable Rock You! to continue its focus on developing and distributing the company’s suite of popular widgets for integration with many of the Web’s most trafficked social networking sites, blog networks and photo hosting websites.

“We are thrilled to complete our series B funding led by Partech International,” said Dr. Lance Tokuda, CEO and co-founder of RockYou!. “The additional funding will help further our efforts in creating easy to use, engaging and expressive widgets for our loyal user base, as well as provide our integration and content partners with the assurance of a secure and mutually beneficial relationship.”

Originally posted on May 17, 2007 @ 6:00 am

Intel Capital announces $31 million in 6 investments

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Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of Intel Corporation, kicked off its eighth annual CEO Summit with the announcement of six investments totaling $31 million. The deals include: China-based 51.com (social networking) and Phoenix Microelectronics (microelectronics ); Aternity (application management software) and Ceedo (portable computing environment), both based in Israel; and from the United States, Jajah (Internet telephony solutions ) and Tutor.com (education network ).

This year’s CEO Summit is being attended by more than 400 executives from Intel Capital portfolio companies and global 2,000 companies. The event includes keynote presentations, expert panel discussions and more than 500 matchmaking meetings between portfolio company CEOs and industry executives as part of the focus on learning and deal-making.

“With global reach, larger investment stakes and active collaboration, Intel Capital is a leader in company building and becoming engaged with companies beyond our initial investment,” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital. “By bringing together savvy business executives, global decision makers and our inspired entrepreneurs, the CEO Summit demonstrates our proactive strategy in helping our portfolio companies succeed. We look forward to welcoming CEOs, executives and entrepreneurs from around the world to this year’s event.”

Originally posted on May 11, 2007 @ 6:25 am