Nestio raises $750K seed for apartment hunting

New York City-based TechStars graduate gets a seed round from Quotidian Ventures and angels

Nestio, looking to make apartment hunting a little easier, has raised $750,000 in seed funding, according to an SEC filing published Wednesday. The round was led by Quotidian Ventures, with participation from several angel investors, including Joanne Wilson, Rick Webb, Josh Auerbach, and David Tisch, TechCrunch reports.

We’ve reached out to the company for official confirmation, but have not yet heard reply.

Playing in the highly populated real estate space (think Trulia or Zillow, among many others), Nestio is smartly starting small by focusing just on apartments in New York City.

The interesting thing about Nestio, in contrast to its competitors, is that the site does not itself host any listings. Instead, you search for listings on “any of your favorite sites” and then save them to Nestio. Right now, you can search on Craigslist and Streeteasy, after detailing exactly how many bedrooms, a price range and neighborhood preference.

Beyond this fundamental functionality, Nestio lets users compare listings side-by-side as well as collaborate with future roommates, which links two accounts together. Plus, there’s a bookmarklet that lets users save apartment listings from anywhere on the Web.

Explains the company:

Looking for a new place to live is stressful and time-consuming. Resources are scattered across numerous sites, false advertisements are frustrating, and dead-ends are common. We’re a team of serial apartment hunters and we know the pain all too well. So we built a product that we know hunters need, and hope that it helps you find your dream home!

Another key advantage for Nestio is that the team and, in turn, company have character. If you’re familiar with Hipmunk, a travel search site trying to take the “agony” out of travel, then you know the power of a personable, likable company. Nestio comes off with that friendly charm, except they’re offering apartment search instead of flight search.

It’s like they’re your buddies:

We started Nestio because we know the pain of apartment hunting all too well. We're professional renters, living in NYC, and we have our own horror stories. Ask us about them sometime, they are real humdingers.

Whether its charm, coupled with the right technology, can make Nestio a go-to site for apartment hunting remains to be seen. It stands a good chance with this foundation of seed funding, though.

The New York-based startup is currently four employees strong, and they’re looking to hire another Python engineer. The new funding will also likely go toward expanding beyond New York.