Redfin IPO Raises $138M, Stock to Begin Trading Friday

[Updated, 1:40pm PT. See below] Redfin, a real estate software firm based in Seattle, priced its initial public offering at $15 a share on Thursday, above the projected range of $12 to $14. The IPO raised $138 million, and the company’s stock is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq today under the symbol “RDFN.”

My colleague Ben Romano detailed Redfin’s recent strategy and financial results when the company filed for its IPO in June. Its current valuation is $1.2 billion.

The 15-year-old company becomes the second publicly traded real estate tech company in Seattle, following Zillow (NASDAQ: [[ticker:Z]]), which went public in 2011. (The companies have very different models.)

Xconomy has reported on Redfin’s progress since 2009, when the company raised a new round of venture capital.

[This paragraph added after market close—Eds.] Redfin’s stock debuted on Friday trading at $19.56 a share, up about 30 percent from its IPO price. It closed at $21.70, up more than 44 percent.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.