In the summer of 2012, Nextdoor was the most talked about new social network at Real Estate Connect, and the company closed its first round of $18.6 million in funding from investors including Zillow Chairman and co-founder Rich Barton.
Today, the company announced that it’s raised $110 million in a fourth round of funding that brings the total raised to date to $210 million, and which the Wall Street Journal reports values the company at $1.1 billion.
The secret to the success of the “free and private social network for neighborhoods” can be summed up in three words: adoption, engagement and partnerships.
- Nextdoor says it’s got users in more than 53,000 neighborhoods — more than 1 in 3 neighborhoods nationwide — and that 85 percent of neighborhoods in the 40 most populated cities have adopted Nextdoor.
- Close to two-thirds of Nextdoor users (63 percent) check in at least once a week.
- Local agencies in 508 cities are using Nextdoor to stay in touch with residents.
The latest round was led by Redpoint Ventures and Insight Venture Partners, and also included Meritech and Coatue — all new investors. Existing investors Benchmark, Greylock Partners, Tiger Global Management, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Comcast Ventures and Shasta Ventures were also on board.
“Nextdoor’s progress to date is striking, but they are just getting started,” said Satish Dharmaraj, a partner at Redpoint Ventures, in a statement. “We strongly believe that Nextdoor will become the definitive social network for everything related to your local life.”
Nextdoor is popular with real estate agents, but Bob Hale, CEO of the Houston Association of Realtors, has warned that it could “easily become a way for neighbors” to sell homes outside of multiple listing services.