Company: Redfin
Description: Online real estate broker
Competitors: ZipRealty
Location: Seattle
Amount raised: $8 million
Round: Second
Date announced: 5/31/06
VC firms: Vulcan Capital, BEV Capital, Hillman Company, Madrona Venture Group
VC directors: Peter Cochran, Marc Singer
Quick take: Like the investment and travel markets before it, the real estate industry is due for a good throttling. Redfin is one of the new breed of online real estate startups, such as Zillow and Trulia, aiming to disrupt this market. Redfin will negotiate the purchase of a home for you and return to you a portion of the commission due to the buyer's broker. There's a clear value proposition here that reminds me of Rent.com. But, this isn't a rental property we're talking about. It's a house, and I, for one, would worry about trusting the inspections, disclosures and competitive bidding processes to a discount brokerage. Many others won't have those concerns, which should allow Redfin to get by serving the do-it-yourself crowd in the near term. Longer term, if the company bolsters its management team, it could be a market leader when the online real estate revolution hits full swing.

Technology (1 out of 10): 5
Market: 9
Management: 3
Chances for IPO: 3
Overall VC rating: 6

For more on Redfin's funding, see:
TechCrunch
Redfin Press Release
360 Digest

Technorati tags: redfin, realestate, travel, vc, venture+capital