Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Atlas part of latest funding for Zoopla.co.uk

By Mass High Tech staff

Atlas Venture has returned as a backer of Zoopla.co.uk, a U.K. property website, in a $5.3 million round of new funding, which also included Octopus Ventures. Waltham-based Atlas also participated in Zoopla’s first round, worth $2.8 million.

Zoopla.co.uk was launched in January 2008 and provides house price and market value data on all 27 million U.K. homes, according to company officials. The company is led by founder and CEO Alex Chesterman, who most recently co-founded ScreenSelect.co.uk — now named LOVEFiLM.com, Europe’s largest online DVD rental business. In addition to Atlas Venture and Octopus Ventures, other backers of Zoopla.co.uk include Nauiokas Park LLP as well as angel investors including Sherry Coutu, Robin Klein of the Accelerator Group, Simon Murdoch, Andy Phillipps and William Reeve.

In November, Atlas was reported to be planning to raise $500 million for its eighth new fund. In 2006, the VC firm raised $385 million in its seventh fund.

The early-stage investment firm focuses on technology companies in the U.S. and Europe. Founded in 1980, Atlas Venture, which manages more than $2.5 billion in capital, operates offices in Waltham, London, Munich and Paris. During the past decade, 44 portfolio companies funded by Atlas Venture have been acquired and 47 are now public companies with an aggregate market capitalization of more than $15 billion.