Venture Capital Pours Into Real Estate Tech

Remember the late 90's? Remember all the money that was being thrown around at virtually anyone who could use a computer and form a complete sentence? Well the 90's are over. Now you have to do more than form a complete sentence and use a computer to get millions of dollars in funding for your wild idea. Now you have to relate your idea to real estate.

Those days have returned for at least one fast-growing Seattle Internet company. Zillow.com, the highly secretive online real estate startup that was started by former Expedia executives, recently pulled in $26 million in venture capital financing, according to my story. I discovered the financing -- one of the largest in a Seattle Internet company in the past year -- in a filing with the state. Last October, Zillow announced that it raised money from Benchmark Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures. But at the time, it didn't say how much.

Now, we know. Total financing in the year-old company, which at this time last year was a germ of an idea, stands at $32 million. The Wall Street Journal, which featured Zillow.com in a story late last week, also cited that figure. So did BusinessWeek.

That's a pretty big war chest for a company that won't say what it is doing.

Maybe if I had a more positive attitude, I could turn my tech knowledge into millions of dollars in funding for a real estate website. Or instead I could just keep posting on this blog about how ridiculous things have gotten lately. I think I'll do that.

(John Cook, Seattle P-I Blog, 01.18.2006)