Waka.ca is a Quebec City (Quebec City has to be one of the most underrated cities in the world) company that provides a real estate search engine. They have already launched for Quebec, and will be expanding significantly in the coming fall and have been making steady progress since their launch in 2006.
Waka scrapes data from a slew of sources. From classified ads to real estate agent websites, it’s nice to see someone start to aggregate all this information. Anyone who is trying to buy or lease real estate is probably familiar with how frustrating systems like MLS.ca can be as they constantly try to hide information from you.
With about 10,000 people coming to the site a week, waka is slogging up the typical curve and will have a lot of hard work to do in order to get wide acceptance, but they will be the first (and currently only) site in Canada that aggregates all of the available sources of real estate listing information. Being the first and best established resource in Canada is going to be a big deal in the next few years as more people start to research their housing purchase online.
While they do not seem to be actively seeking investment, and are currently funded with friend/family money, my guess is that as their expansion plans get larger, and as some competition starts to move in, Waka may be on the lookout for friendly angel money.
Waka plans to make money through advertising, which can be a painful process. They will have to focus on pulling in large amounts of visitors, which may take their focus away from more focused goals, such as creating a market or ensuring that their tool drives more off-mls sales.
With two founders and 4 other employees working on the project, I am looking forward to watching Waka evolve quickly, and we will keep checking in with them.
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