Core news facts:
-Agent Ace, the data-driven real estate agent recommendation service, today announced it acquired fypio, a real estate company that provides a more personalized, lifestyle-driven search experience for home buyers, and merged to create OpenHouse.
-Additionally, OpenHouse secured $13.5 million in Series A funding in a round led by Triangle Peak Partners and March Capital Partners, with participation from additional investors.
-Prior to the acquisition and merger, Agent Ace has raised more than $6 million in funding, is available in more than 75 major U.S. metro areas and is a licensed real estate broker in 37 states, with more on the immediate horizon.
-Founded in 2013, fypio has received $2.4 million in funding and been recognized for innovative design.

With the funding, Agent Ace and fypio are merging to create OpenHouse, a brand new real estate lifestyle search company that combines property search, data-driven real estate agent recommendations and in-depth neighborhood and community information.

OpenHouse combines Agent Ace's objective and unbiased real estate agent recommendation service with fypio's personalized home search, giving consumers the most comprehensive and compelling way to find their dream home and a smarter way to connect with the agent that can make it a reality.
OpenHouse is powered by big data, demographic information and social media to offer consumers the most personalized and hyper-local home search and buying experience.

OpenHouse is the only company that aggregates and translates real-time real estate transaction and social data to give consumers true insight on their desired neighborhood and the neighbors that live there.

OpenHouse is currently available for iPhone in the App Store and on the Web, and will soon be available via a desktop version on TheOpenHouse.com. The app is live in 14 metropolitan areas, and will continue rolling out to additional metros nationwide in early 2016.

Prior to becoming OpenHouse, Agent Ace signed and launched strategic partnerships with major U.S. companies in the insurance, financial services and employee benefits sectors. The new partnerships build on the success of Agent Ace's flagship partner program, U.S. News & World Report, which launched its 'Best Agent' franchise in 2014.

Agent Ace was founded by Mazen Fawaz in 2010 and fypio was founded by Michael Koh and John Kvasnic. Fawaz is the CEO of OpenHouse and Kvasnic has been appointed chief product officer.

For more information, please visit TheOpenHouse.com and @getopenhouse

Quotes:

Mazen Fawaz, OpenHouse CEO and Agent Ace founder:
'Finding an ideal home is often difficult for people to navigate without the right agent as their guide to the ins-and-outs of the local market and specific neighborhoods. fypio built something truly special and innovative, tapping into all the right data to give current and prospective home buyers exactly what they are looking for in a house and neighborhood. We will continue to take that to a level unseen anywhere else -- our belief is in complete transparency for the consumer. With our new round of funding and the fypio acquisition, we're thrilled to introduce a new way to search for real estate and get connected to the right agent -- OpenHouse will be key to the home buying and selling process.'

John Kvasnic, OpenHouse CPO and fypio co-founder:
'Agent Ace spent two years building an unrivaled data backbone, and with their patented technology, the team nailed matching home buyers with the perfect real estate agent. By combining those data-driven matchmaking capabilities with fypio's real-time social data and lifestyle-focused design, we are excited to collectively become OpenHouse and provide consumers a vivid portrait of what it could be like in a home they are exploring, and even compare it to the home and life they have today. It's not only about bedroom counts and price. It's about having great neighbors, the education and opportunities for children, and being happy in a house that works with personal design tastes and styles. OpenHouse will not only give people the most transparency on the property listing, but also to the life they and their family will be leading.'

Jim Armstrong, Managing Director, March Capital Partners
'Agent Ace's data-driven agent matchmaking technology is game-changing for the industry, and we've been highly impressed by their growth and momentum since inception. With the addition of the fypio team and the creation of OpenHouse, the integration creates a truly performance-based, lifestyle-focused real estate company we're certain will delight buyers and sellers and shift the industry.'

About OpenHouse

OpenHouse helps buyers and sellers make smarter decisions about the biggest transaction in their lives by answering the most important question: 'what would my life be like in this home?' The right house is more than a zip code, a price tag, a floor plan. It's you. Powered by big data, OpenHouse is a better way to find your dream home, and a smarter way to connect you with the agent that can make it real. Founded in 2010 as Agent Ace, OpenHouse is headquartered in sunny Santa Monica, Calif. To find the life you want to live, visit TheOpenHouse.com.

About March Capital

March Capital Partners is a global investment firm, founded by four industry-leading investors who have hundreds of millions of dollars in successful venture capital and private financings. March Capital is focused on discovering breakthrough technology companies while remaining stage agnostic in its investments. March Capital is located in the epicenter of innovation and entrepreneurship in Southern California, and looks to identify and lead investments that can be the future of Internet Infrastructure, Enterprise Technology, and Information Services & Content. Marchcp.com