SmartZip Analytics Inc., maker of a predictive analytics tool that helps real estate pros target their marketing to homeowners who may be likely to sell soon, has raised $12 million in a Series B funding round.
The Pleasanton, California-based firm, a member of the 2014 class of National Association of Realtors’ REach tech accelerator program, says it will use the funds to “aggressively” expand its sales and marketing and begin to adapt its products to other verticals.
The round was led by Houston-based Crest Capital Ventures with participation from existing investors Claremont Creek Ventures and Intel Capital.
SmartZip’s SmartTargeting predictive marketing platform helps brokers and agents identify potential home sellers by analyzing more than 250 home, neighborhood, owner and loan attributes, and trends. The 6-year-old firm launched the tool in 2010 and rolled out a mobile app for it in October.
SmartZip also provides an automatic home valuation tool currently used by realtor.com, Homes.com and ZipRealty.
SmartZip also revealed that it is currently at work on a new product due out this fall, SphereTargeting, which will help real estate pros drum up business from their existing sphere of influence.
“For the last five years, we have been blazing the trail on making big data and predictive analytics actionable for the real estate industry, and this funding will enable us to capitalize on the vast market opportunity in front of us,” said Avi Gupta, president and CEO of SmartZip, in a statement.
“SmartZip is at the forefront of applying predictive analytics technology to help real estate businesses increase market share and improve ROI,” said Jason Woods, president of Crest Capital Ventures. “We are impressed with what SmartZip has accomplished to date, and excited to be part of their future as this technology is sure to become a mainstream application for businesses of all kinds.”
SmartZip’s round is part of an explosion of investment in real estate tech startups. New York City-based brokerage and tech platform Urban Compass recently raised $40 million in a Series B round that valued the firm at $360 million.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story misidentified SmartZip’s new product debuting this fall as SmartSphere. The new product is SphereTargeting.
