Zillow’s stock market debut dominated the past week of Seattle tech headlines here at Xconomy, and it’s one of the top stories of the year for the Northwest tech business scene.
The significance extends beyond the raw facts and figures of Zillow’s (NASDAQ: [[ticker:Z]]) business, which aren’t mind-blowing—the company is growing but unprofitable, and only booked about $30 million in revenue last year. It’s the first IPO by a Seattle-area tech company in about a year, confirming that there is life in the public markets after several down years for investors and entrepreneurs.
Also making noise about an IPO was Inrix, a Kirkland, WA-based provider of roadway traffic data that has ambitions of seizing a dominating lead in the global market. That goal will be aided significantly by a fresh infusion of $37 million in venture financing, the largest fundraising number we’ve seen this year for a Seattle-area tech company. Inrix CEO Bryan Mistele had already been eyeing an IPO, and says the current climate and his new funding means it’ll happen “sooner rather than later.”
Our monthly roundup of equity deals for the region’s tech, biotech and cleantech companies was headlined by Glympse, a “social GPS” startup that lets users broadcast their turn-by-turn whereabouts to other folks. Glympse hauled in $7.5 million in June, edging ahead of the $5.8 million raised by biotech company Adaptive TCR. We also had a couple of national reports on second-quarter venture capital activity, which showed overall VC financing in the $8 billion range.
Redmond, WA expense and travel service Concur (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CNQR]]) continued its partnership and acquisition spree by investing $5 million in Yapta, a Seattle online service that tracks airfares and hotel rates. Yapta’s tools will be part of Concur’s TripItPro service, which helps business travelers manage their itineraries.
And finally: Ignition Partners led a $20 million round for San Mateo, CA’s Motif Investing; Winshuttle continued its growth by acquiring ShareVis of Carlsbad, CA; Bag Borrow or Steal raised another $4 million; FluxDrive and Lockerz each brought in $1.5 million.
