Property search site Zoopla has been voted Europe's 'most exciting investor-backed company' in advance of its widely expected initial public offering.
Zoopla hired investment bank Credit Suisse in early September to explore how the company can grow its business, which could include a listing on London Stock Exchange
The six-year old site could be valued at as much as £1.3bn, reflecting growing house prices and a maturity in the tech startup space.
"We set out to make consumers lives better by giving them a better experience and a greater selection," he said.
"The consumer experience was poor – all those other players focused on UK property search classified ads in much the same way as newspapers had always done. But we focus on the peripheral information - what the house last sold for, what the schools are like and what newspaper the neighbours read. All this stuff is out there, in 18 places, so we just made it a one stop shop."
The property slump meant that Zoopla was able to buy 11 competitors in four years at relatively low value, closing those which duplicated its service and keeping open niche sites for new homes, overseas property and high end. It is due to open a new commercial property portal in December.
Zoopla has 40m monthly users, claims to generate 2.5m monthly leads for estate agents and, in August, recorded 46% of its monthly views on mobile. It is expected to generate £65m in revenues for 2013 and revenue growth of 20% per year, generated by subscription fees from estate agents and developers, display advertising and access to consumer data.
Source: theguardian
