How will that remodel help boost your home value? Seattle startup Plunk raises $6.5M to find out

New financing: Seattle real estate startup Plunk has completed a $ 6.5 million launch led by Unlock Ventures.

The technique: Plunk helps homeowners play “what if” scenarios to find out what could drive the value of their home up or down. The app uses image processing, AI and machine learning to assess the condition of a house and recommend specific remodeling projects that can add value – also known as “plunk value”.

In some ways, Plunk is similar to home valuation tools like Zillow’s Zestimate, but takes it one step further with tailored recommendations based on various data sources. It focuses less on buying or selling transactions and more on the homeowner’s entire journey.

Traction: Plunk’s free app was recently launched in the Seattle area and has been used by more than 1 million households. This calculated a combined “plunk value” of more than 400 billion US dollars.

The business: The company doesn’t share any monetization plans yet, saying it is focused on establishing its analytics as credible and authoritative.

Brian Lent and David Bluhm, co-founders of Plunk. (Plunk photos)

Guide: Plunk is run by David Bluhm and Brian Lent. Seattle start-up veterinarians in 2004 helped launch Medio, which began as a mobile search service but transformed into a mobile analytics provider that Nokia picked up and integrated into its HERE Technologies arm. A consortium of German automakers later acquired HERE in 2015.

Lent, the CEO of Plunk, stayed with HERE after the deal and was most recently Chief Technology Officer before leaving in 2018. Lent previously founded companies such as Micro Revelations and Intelligent Results. He was an executive at Junglee before Amazon took over in 1998. Lent spent the next two years at Amazon, where he founded his first data mining group.

Bluhm is a longtime Seattle entrepreneur and investor. Previously, he ran companies like Z2Live and DropForge Games and is chairman of Powerit, a battery startup.

“We want to be the most trusted voice on all financial matters related to home ownership,” Plunk president Bluhm told GeekWire.

Investors: Other supporters are the Sony Innovation Fund, Plug & Play Ventures, Vectr Fintech Partners and Second Century Ventures. The starting round includes $ 2 million raised by GeekWire over the past two years.

“Knowing what your home is worth before you start remodeling is becoming the new normal,” said Andy Liu, co-founder of Unlock Venture Partners.

What’s next? Plunk plans to grow the 21-person company and will participate in Second Century Ventures’ 2021 scale-up accelerator program.

Seattle real estate hotbed: Plunk is part of a roster of real estate companies in the Seattle area. The area is home to heavyweights like Zillow Group and Redfin, as well as startups like Flyhomes, Blokable, Loftium, Arrived, and others.