SUNNYVALE, CA, Real estate technology company, announced today it has raised a $1.1 million seed round of funding from DCM's mobile-focused A-Fund.
RealScout, a Sunnyvalebased real estate technology company, announced today it has raised a $1.1 million seed round of funding from DCM's mobile-focused A-Fund; Formation 8; and angel investor Ken DeLeon, the number one Realtor in the US in 2011 as named by The Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends. RealScout offers a full-featured web and mobile platform that allows Realtors to collaborate with their clients in searching for the perfect home.
The platform offers a unique search portal for home buyers, and provides Realtors with the industry's first natural language email marketing software and a lightweight CRM solution. RealScout already services real estate agents in the Bay Area and plans to use the financing to expand further within California and throughout the United States.
'Most advances in home search have been aimed at improving the consumer experience, but real estate agents have largely been left behind with outdated tools that are not clientfriendly,' said Andrew Flachner, CEO of RealScout. 'As a result, clients end up on national portals where they are completely disconnected from their agents, and sometimes even lured away by competing Realtors who advertise on these sites. With our platform, we're putting the Realtor back at the center of the homebuying experience.'
RealScout offers a versatile clientagent collaboration platform that enables Realtors to attract new leads, engage with more clients and efficiently manage their pipeline.
The platform includes:
Fullfeatured home search: RealScout empowers agents to engage their clients with a tool that feels like a national portal. The company collects over 500 unique data points for active home listings, which allows Realtors and their clients to search for homes based on highly desirable, yet traditionally difficulttosearch property features such as remodeled kitchens, large backyards, proximity to Google shuttle stops, and even good feng shui.
Email marketing: RealScout provides the industry's first natural language email marketing software. Automated natural language email alerts are sent on behalf of the agent, highlighting new listings with features most important to their clients. In addition to standard filters such as bedrooms, bathrooms, and price, Realtors can take full advantage of advanced 'soft' criteria included in the fullfeatured search engine.
Lightweight CRM solution: Agents can gain unprecedented insight into their clients' home search, track engagement metrics and identify the leads that are most likely to convert into commissions. The CRM solution features a client pipeline and includes tools to track client interactions.
'RealScout's vision isn't about brash disintermediation,' said Osuke Honda, Partner at DCM. 'The company is embracing the existing Real Estate transaction model, which is a $50 billion a year market, and is simply providing tools to better align and maximize the value of the relationship between real estate agents and clients. That's why RealScout has experienced overwhelming initial traction, and why I'm confident they can continue building an exceptional brand.'
'RealScout's approach aligns the company directly with real estate agents, allowing agents to leverage technology as opposed to trying to use technology to replace people. We see this as the winning approach,' said Joe Lonsdale, general partner and cofounder of Formation 8. 'For such a young company they have a very sophisticated understanding of their market, and are laser focused on driving value to their users. This is evidenced both in the design of their product as well as their results thus far.'
RealScout is available for real estate agents at
www.realscout.com/agents.
About RealScout
RealScout is a Sunnyvalebased real estate technology company that provides a full featured search platform for real estate agents to collaborate with their clients during the homebuying process. Their software helps Realtors manage more clients by offering a lightweight CRM and the industry's first natural language email marketing software. RealScout is funded by DCM's mobile focused AFund, Formation 8 and Ken DeLeon, the number one Realtor in the US in 2011 as named by The Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends. For more information, visit:
www.realscout.com.
About DCM
DCM is an early stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Beijing and Tokyo with more than $2 billion under management. DCM has investments in more than 200 technology companies across the United States and Asia and provides handson operational guidance and a global network of business and financial resources. DCM has backed industryleading companies such as 51job, About.com, Clearwire, eDreams, Foundry Networks, Kabu.com, Sling Media, SMIC, and VanceInfo as well as upcoming startups such as 58.com, Bill.com, Bridgelux, Kakao, Happy Elements, and Trion Worlds. Recent successes (IPOs and M&As) include Chinabased Renren, BitAuto, Dangdang, Luxin and Vipshop; Japanbased Pokelabo (GREE) and StarFlyer and USbased Fortinet, PGP (Symantec) and SandForce (LSI). For more information, visit http://www.dcm.com.
About Formation 8
Formation 8 is a leading venture capital firm that provides capital and strategic support for technology and energy technology companies. Formation 8 combines deep operating and investing experience to partner with the best entrepreneurs and transform important global industries. The firm is based in San Francisco and has offices in Palo Alto, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore. For more information, visit http://www.formation8.com.
