Ask any founders or CEO how they feel about the process of searching for office space for their companies, and the majority of them will shake their heads. Some may even lash out. There is a prevailing sense that searching for office space is, if not horrible, at least somewhat broken. Part of the reason for this is that the industry itself, writ large, remains offline. If you want to find great space, you have to go to a broker. Brokers have long horded their “proprietary data” keeping it offline as a result, but visit a handful of them and there’s a good chance you’ll find some overlap in their listings result.
Deciding to create a solution, Jason Freedman co-founded 42Floors, which launched in May after after graduating from Y Combinator’s Winter 2012 class. Simply put, 42Floors aims to make the process of renting office space and commercial real estate easier by aggregating listings data from landlords and sellers, adding photography and then allowing users to search by indexing rentals, coworking spaces, sublets and executive suites.
Based in the Bay Area, since launch, 42Floors has focused its efforts on the San Francisco commercial market, resolved to expand only once it had gained a robust data set and hit critical mass in its home market. That being said, the office space search engine is now ready to expand, announcing today that it is now live in New York City, after months spent forging partnerships with landlords and commercial real estate brokers in Manhattan.
According to Freeman, the company’s strategy continues to be reinventing and bring commercial real estate information and listings online, one city at a time. Learning from its experience in San Francisco, 42Floors quadrupled its capacity for its New York launch beforehand — a process it will repeat as it begins orchestrating its expansion to Boston, Seattle, Chicago and so on.
To support its launch in NYC, 42Floors announced today that it raised a $5 million series A round earlier this year, which was first reported back in September. But the company is now pulling back the curtain on its investors — all 35 of them — an impressive roster of angels, VCs and real estate players, which includes Thrive Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Chris Dixon, Second Market co-founder Barry Silbert and 500 Startups’ Dave McClure — to name a few.
This the startup’s second round of funding, as it raised a $400K seed round after graduating from Y Combinator from YC, SV Angel and Start Fund and brings its total to just under $5.5 million. As a result of the funding, Kushner Companies CEO Jared Kushner and Bessemer Partner Jeremy Levine will be joining the startup’s board of directors.
For more, check out 42Floors at home here.
