Property site Zoopla gets £3.75m funding boost

Launched a year ago, Zoopla said it is seeing record website traffic despite the gloomy market conditions and outlook.  

The site is one of the top five most-visited property websites in the UK (source: Nielsen, Dec 08) having achieved over five million visits and 40 million page views in its first 12 months.

Zoopla offers free, instant value estimates on all 27 million UK homes. The site will soon launch estate agent listings on a pay-for-performance basis.

The site combines publicly available data and proprietary user-generated content, and said it generated more than one million user contributions to its website in 2008 alone.

Alex Chesterman, founder and CEO of Zoopla.co.uk, commented: “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.”

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.  

The firm’s management team led by Alex Chesterman, its founder and CEO, who most recently co-founded ScreenSelect.co.uk (now LOVEFiLM.com).  

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.     
 
Alex Macpherson, Chief Executive of Octopus Ventures commented:“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.”

Fred Destin, Partner at Atlas Venture and repeat backer of Zoopla.co.uk added:"Great businesses emerge in times of hardship.  Alex and the team are building the next-generation leader in the property space, we will be there to support them all the way and are grateful to be working with such an accomplished management team."