Nextdoor, the US-based social media platform that counts media company Axel Springer, mass media group Comcast and internet technology conglomerate Alphabet as investors, raised $123m yesterday.
Private equity firm Riverwood Capital led the round, which also featured hedge fund manager Tiger Global Management, venture capital firms Benchmark and Kleiner Perkins, and an undisclosed asset manager. The round was widely reported to value NextDoor at $2.1bn.
Founded in 2011, Nextdoor has built a social network that is arranged according to geographical location, allowing neighbours to meet and communicate with each other online.
The service reaches across more than 230,000 neighbourhoods in the US, Australia and eight European countries. The funding was secured alongside its entry into Sweden and Denmark, and it is set to be invested in growing the company’s team.
Nextdoor CEO said Sarah Friar said: “Neighbours everywhere still love and care about belonging and contributing to a tangible, real place as evidenced by Nextdoor’s continued growth and expansion throughout the US, Europe and Australia.
“We are thrilled and honoured to partner with these forward-looking investors to catalyse neighbours’ ability to connect with relevant local conversations, organisations, and businesses, engage in real world interactions and unlock the global power of local.”
Chris Varelas, co-founder and managing partner of Riverwood Capital, will get a seat on Nextdoor’s board of directors in conjunction with the round, which took the company’s overall funding to approximately $408m.
GV, the Alphabet subsidiary formerly known as Google Ventures, first invested in Nextdoor in 2013, in a $21.6m series B round that was led by Greylock Partners and backed by fellow existing investors Benchmark, DAG Ventures and Shasta Ventures, as well as Pinnacle Ventures and Bezos Expeditions.
Tiger Global Management and Kleiner Perkins (then operating as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, or KPCB) co-led the company’s $60m series C round later the same year, investing with Comcast subsidiary Comcast Ventures, Benchmark, Greylock and Shasta Ventures.
Nextdoor added $110m in a 2015 series D round co-led by Redpoint Ventures and Insight Partners that included Comcast Ventures, Benchmark, Greylock, Tiger Global, KPCB, Shasta Ventures Meritech Capital Partners and Coatue Management.
The latest round comes after the company raised $75m in late 2017 from unnamed investors at a reported valuation of $1.5bn, up from a 2015 valuation of $1.1bn. It identified Axel Springer as an existing investor this week, but did not disclose when it supplied that funding.