Some weeks are “product” weeks – the companies all have something they want to release. This has been a “money” week – crazy amounts have been thrown around. And – although the amount of craziness and throwing involved here is debatable – real estate search engine Trulia has just joined the crowd by raising $10 million in funding.
There are presumably several different entities behind that donation, but the main name to know is Sequoia Capital. That’s a powerful name, and as the Trulia Blog states, the people behind it “are the folks behind Oracle, Cisco, Yahoo!, Google, YouTube and many other blue chip companies.”
Trulia wants everyone to know that it hasn’t been spoiled (or corrupted) by Sequoia’s involvement, though; there will be “[n]o change in strategy,” and “Trulia continues to be absolutely unbiased and independent, unaffiliated with any specific media or real estate brand.”
As for what Trulia intends to do with the money, no clear answers were forthcoming. The company will “expand,” “deepen,” and “develop new products and services aimed at helping consumers make smarter decisions about buying and selling homes,” but that’s not saying a lot. I mean, $10 million should do or accomplish something.
Still, John Cook, who runs a venture blog for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, thinks these rumblings “could indicate how Trulia plans to go after Zillow, which has not quite won the confidence of the real estate industry.”
