Real estate e-commerce solutions provider Homes Inc. closed on a $38.5
million venture capital funding round led by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners,
with additional investments from Kinetics Ventures, Comdisco Ventures and
Lighthouse Capital.
Also, Homes Inc. subsidiary Homes.com said it acquired Real Estate Village, an Internet
marketing solutions provider for the real estate sector. Financial terms were
not disclosed.
The combination of the Real Estate Village and Homes.com customer bases will
create a network of about 85,000 real estate professionals covering every
major market in the United States.
“With the acquisition of Real Estate Village, Homes.com will have the
nation’s largest membership network of unique real estate related domain
names,” said Bob Prince,
president and chief executive officer of Homes.com.
Privately held Real Estate Village is a provider of Web sites and other
Internet marketing solutions for real estate agents. Its network of real
estate professionals consists
of over 7,000 unique domain name sites with a growth rate of over 650 sites
per month.
Meanwhile, Hank Barry, a partner of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, will
join the company’s board of directors.
“We were immediately impressed by the Homes team and its business model,”
said Barry. “The company was the first solutions provider on the Internet for
real estate agents and has continued to drive the advancement of technology
into the real estate industry. Homes is the clear leader for integrated
business solutions for all aspects of the real estate industry.”
Homes Inc. provides proprietary technology that allows industry professionals
to initiate, manage, and close transactions on the Web, complete with online
status
reporting. The company plans to use the venture funding to expand the
distribution of these products throughout the real estate industry.
Additionally, the company will broaden the offerings on its real estate and
home ownership Web center, www.homes.com, to assist consumers with
everything home-related.