Real estate information portal Zillow Inc. says it hopes to propel its rental marketplace "ahead by years" by acquiring rental relationship management software provider RentJuice Corp. for $40 million.
Zillow said the acquisition will allow it to offer a suite of tools and services for rental professionals to help them market their inventory to renters and manage client relationships.
San Francisco-based RentJuice offers subscription-based marketing and productivity tools, including a customer relationship management (CRM) platform for managing leads and relationships, rental listings management software and syndication, consumer credit screening, and secure online rental application management.
"Zillow has spent the last six years building robust marketplaces for real estate and mortgages, and we are in the midst of growing our rental marketplace, which has tremendous potential," Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff said in a statement.
Zillow launched its rental search capabilities in December 2009.
RentJuice CEO David Vivero said becoming part of Zillow will allow the company, which was launched in 2009 and now employs 31, to "invest more and innovate faster on behalf of the leasing professionals we support."
In a regulatory filing, Zillow said RentJuice stockholders who collectively hold sufficient shares to approve the merger have agreed to vote for it.
If the deal closes during the second quarter, as expected, RentJuice would be Zllow’s third acquisition to date.
Last year Zillow acquired listing syndicator Postlets in April, followed by the purchase of real estate website technology provider Diverse Solutions for $7.8 million.
