Roost, Inc. Secures $8 Million in New Funding

Real Estate Search Engine Poised for Growth as Interest Rates Decline and Buyers Return to Real Estate

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Roost, Inc. (www.roost.com), the fastest, most comprehensive search engine for finding your dream home, today announced it has secured $8 million in new funding. Led by Shasta Ventures, this investment will enable Roost to continue to revolutionize online real estate search and expand into additional markets. Also today, Roost announced a partnership with First American CoreLogic that brings foreclosed home listings to the site, dramatically expanding Roost.com's overall listings to more than 3 million.

“Unlike other types of advertising, Roost is performance based and puts the broker in control. These are the forces that are fueling our growth.”

"Some may wonder why we would choose to invest in a real estate search company in one of the most challenging housing and credit markets in recent history," said Jason Pressman, managing director at Shasta Ventures who will join the Roost board of directors. "In this tumultuous time, many Americans are looking for an investment alternative to the stock market. Roost is able to provide the most accurate picture of a given housing market and therefore help consumers make truly informed decisions."

Since its launch earlier this year, Roost has developed individual partnerships with more than 100 local real estate brokers and Multiple Listing Service (MLS) boards across the nation in its drive to offer prospective home buyers the most comprehensive and accurate set of homes for sale in their area. At the same time, Roost.com drives high-quality consumer traffic to its partners' websites. “It's never been more critical for Real Estate brokers to be able to measure the ROI on every marketing dollar spent,” said Alex Chang, CEO of Roost.com. “Unlike other types of advertising, Roost is performance based and puts the broker in control. These are the forces that are fueling our growth.”

The addition of foreclosure listings from First American CoreLogic to the existing set of MLS, For Sale by Owner and New Construction listings means Roost.com now offers an even more complete view of available homes in communities across the country.

Shasta Ventures joins existing Roost investors General Catalyst Partners, The Cross Country Group LLC and Geolo Capital, who together supplied the company's initial $5.5 million in capital and also contributed to the funding announced today.

How Roost.com Works

Roost.com is a blazing-fast search engine that sits atop a hosted network of IDX, or Internet Data Exchange, sites. IDX is a national data sharing standard among real estate brokers. Most popular real estate search sites are listing aggregators, and unlike IDX sites these sites get their listings for properties for sale from a variety of sources including brokers, magazine publishers, newspapers, other software companies, and sometimes, even each other. The result is often inaccurate and incomplete data, leading to frustration for home buyers.

Additionally, the Roost.com platform helps real estate professionals form new connections with new potential clients, serving as an important ally for real estate agents struggling to stay afloat in one of the most difficult housing markets in history.

Roost.com currently offers access to homes and condos for sale in thousands of cities across the nation including; Atlanta; Austin; Baltimore; Boise; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Fort Worth; Houston; Las Vegas; Miami; Minneapolis; Nashville; Orange County; Orlando; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Portland; Sacramento; San Diego; San Francisco; Seattle; St. Paul; Tampa; St. Louis; and Washington, D.C. areas.

Roost was awarded the 2008 Innovator Award for Most Innovative Technology from Inman News, the leading source of independent real estate news and opinion for the industry.

Founded in 2007, Roost, Inc. is based in San Francisco. To start your home search, visit http://www.roost.com.