Pacaso, a company founded by former Zillow executives that is focused on second-home ownership, announced Wednesday they raised $75 million in venture capital financing.
The equity influx boosts Pacaso’s publicized VC investments to $90 million less than six months after former Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff co-founded the Los Angeles-based company.
Rascoff in October started the company with Austin Allison, the founder of dotloop, which Zillow bought in 2015.
Pacaso is a website that has home listings available for purchase on a timeshare basis, “modernizing the decades-old practice of co-ownership.” Buyers can own one-eighth to half of the vacation home.
The company connects consumers with real estate agents, and Pacaso “sets up a professionally managed LLC uniquely designed for co-ownership,” the firm said.
“After purchase,” a press release stated, “Pacaso manages the home on an ongoing basis,” and facilitates a resale “in partnership with a licensed real estate professional.”
It is unclear how many customers have transacted with Pacaso. The release noted “60,000 aspiring buyers” looking on the website in mainly upscale Southern California markets including Malibu and Palm Springs.
Dana Settle of Greycroft and Sarra Zayani of Global Founders Capital led the fundraising round. Settle is a prominent L.A. VC investor, and she has financed other L.A. start-ups including electric scooter company, Bird. Zayani is Settle’s former colleague at Greycroft.
The fundraise is part of an active March for Rascoff.
The entrepreneur, who left Zillow in 2019, has since started three special purpose acquisition companies, and founded a journalism website, Dot.LA. One blank-check company, Supernova Partners Acquisition Company, announced last week they would take iBuying firm Offerpad public via a special purpose acquisition company.
Rascoff’s forays come after he left Zillow amid criticism that he did not sufficiently diversify Zillow’s revenue stream into emerging fields, including iBuying. Under another former founder, Rich Barton, Zillow has gone all-in on iBuying.
