Igglo
Igglo (www.igglo.com) is a Finnish real estate broker startup. The company was founded in February 2006 and is currently operating in Finland and Norway. Igglo relies strongly on the web and offers a web service with photographs and data of buildings plotted on a map. By using the internet as a tool they promise to halve real estate commissions.
The company was founded by chairman and founder of the Finnish media-agency Taivas Jussi Nurmio and Mikko Ranin, the son of the Finnish actor Matti Ranin. Matti Kasso, the former CEO of Huoneistokeskus, was appointed the position of vice CEO.
Igglo was the first Finnish real estate broker to focus strongly on the internet by introducing the first web service to rely strongly on Web 2.0 technologies to the local market. In addition the company introduced the concepts of earmarking a building and silent selling an apartment on the web. Similar concepts are common in the US (Zillow.com, Redfin).
Earmarking enables people to select buildings they are interested in. If an apartment becomes available the customer is contacted by the company's customer service. Silent sell enables people to evaluate the demand for their apartment by creating an ad that is published on the web site.
Igglo is currently the third largest real estate broker in the Helsinki metropolitan area and it employs over one hundred people in Finland and some twenty in Oslo, Norway.
In October 2006 Benchmark Capital Europe and Taivas Group announced an additional investment of ⎠12.5 Million to accelerate the expansion of Igglo further into Europe.
Criticism
In 2006 there was much debate over the legality of the actions of the company (photographing buildings and posting them on the internet). The Finnish justice system declared that photographing buildings does not violate the local privacy laws.
Similar concerns have arisen in Norway, but action against the company is yet to be taken. The US company Zillow.com has faced similar problems.
Sources
External links
- Igglo Norway, Oslo â Buildings plotted on Google Maps
- Finnish Igglo site (www.igglo.fi)
- Norwegian Igglo site (www.igglo.no)
- Igglo.com tunnel page (www.igglo.com)
[[Category:Companies based in Helsinki, Finland]
fi:Igglo