Tiger Global must really like online real estate.
Just five months after participating in a $50 million venture round in Redfin, the giant hedge fund has taken a 9.5 percent stake in publicly-traded Zillow.
Shares of Zillow jumped more than five percent in early-morning trading on the news, topping $96 per share. Zillow, whose stock is up 72 percent in the past year, now has a market value of more than $3.8 billion.
Zillow and Redfin operate in different spheres of the online real estate business, though the two companies (located just a few blocks away from one another in downtown Seattle) often find themselves at loggerheads. (See: Redfin to Zillow: Make these 6 changes to how you show our properties online).
Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman also has spoken publicly about how money-hungry media sites, like Zillow, could “enslave” brokerage businesses.
I wonder how they now feel about sharing a common investor?
Tiger Global was formed in 2000, and it has taken a liking to tech businesses in recent years. One of its biggest bets to date was getting involved in Facebook, prior to its IPO, earning about $1 billion on that deal alone, according to Reuters.
Other Tiger Global investments in the tech sector include online ticket vendor Eventbrite; payments startup Square and Automattic, maker of WordPress.
Interestingly, Tiger Global also recently made investments in two companies with close ties to Zillow co-founder Rich Barton. It participated in a $60 million round for neighborhood social network Nextdoor last October, and a $50 million round for salary site Glassdoor in December.
Barton, who also founded Expedia, is an investor and board member at both Glassdoor and Nextdoor.