Localize.city Raises $8 Million

New York City- and Tel Aviv-based Localize.city, a start-up specializing in supporting home buyers and renters through the use of artificial intelligence, completed a Series A financing round of $8 million to develop and market its AI-powered website: www.localize.city. The website is designed to allow users to search any address in New York City, receive a view of what it’s like to live there, and learn about future changes.

Using AI technology developed in-house, the company’s Insight Engine strives to create knowledge from crude data in real time. Created by a team of 60 algorithm developers, data scientists, statisticians, GIS experts, urban planners and appraisers, machine learning algorithms analyze thousands of models that enable homeseekers to make informed decisions.

The funding round was led by Avigdor Willenz and Zvi Limon. Willenz, a figure in Israel’s semiconductor industry, is credited with the $2.7 billion sale of Galileo to Marvell Technology Group, as well as the sale of Annapurna Labs to Amazon in 2015. Limon invested in startups including Taboola, where he serves as chairman of the board of directors, and a co-founder of Magma Venture Capital. Other notable investors include Noam Gottesman, co-founder of hedge fund GLG Partners, which was sold to Man Group for $1.6 billion, as well as Lip-bu Tan, president and chief executive officer of Cadence Design Systems and chairman of the venture capital fund Walden International.