Urban Compass finishes $ 40 million in new round of financing

Netease Technology News July 22, according to foreign media reports, the New York real estate rental site Urban Compass 40 million U.S. dollars to complete the new round of financing, it plans to expand to more U.S. cities.

Informed sources said that Urban Compass investors include Advance Publications, Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff (Marc Benioff), American Express CEO Kenneth Chennault (Kenneth Chenault), etc., its valuation of more than 360 million US dollars The company's revenue has increased tenfold in the past year. It last round of financing occurred in September 2013, the scale of 20 million US dollars, the valuation allegedly amounted to 150 million US dollars.

Urban Compass's model is: Show real estate pictures, hired real estate agents to connect users and houses. Compared to Craigslist, users can come up with finer and more specific housing needs on the platform, while brokers can manage their relationships with customers through mobile apps. According to Ori Allon, Urban Compass co-founder and executive chairman, the company plans to make inroads into Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.

The company currently has more than 130 employees and plans to hire more people. Brokers make up more than half of his workforce and Alon said he hopes to expand the broker team to over 200 in a year.

"A lot of people complain that the industry is too unscrupulous, the information you see online is not trustworthy, and we want to bring greater transparency through Urban Compass, and now we want to move our platform all over the country.

The company's ability to expand rapidly and access huge amounts of money is due in large part to the background history of its founders. Alon has sold the company to Google and Twitter, Urban Compass CEO Robert Reffkin served as chief aide at Goldman Sachs, and Gary Cohn, a former private equity firm owned by Goldman Sachs, year. Reevegen also set up a charity in New York City, which helped Urban Compass reach out to some investors.

Urban Compass's new round of financing comes as several Internet startups have raised money with high valuations. In May, Pinterest valued a new round of financing at $ 5bn, up significantly from $ 3.8bn last year. Uber's latest valuation even reached 17 billion U.S. dollars, up from 3.5 billion U.S. dollars last year. Aron said his company's valuation is based on exact data.

"We are not relying on the current financing craze. We have healthy and strong business, with revenue-generating mode. We started the financing because we need the funds to expand to new cities." (Hao Hui)