Nextdoor, the private social network for the neighborhood that we covered earlier this year, has raised $18.6 million in a new round of financing from Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Greylock Partners and Shasta Ventures. Other investors include Allen & Company and Pinnacle Ventures, along with individual investors Rich Barton, Anthony Noto and Dave Goldberg.
“We believe we are building a real world community by using technology to meet the people you live close to,” noted Nirav Tolia, Co-Founder and CEO of Nextdoor. “The funding will help further our mission to use the power of social networking to strengthen the neighborhood, one of the most important communities of them all.”
Since the October 2011 launch, the online platform has grown to host over 3,680 neighborhoods in 48 states, launching 20 neighborhoods every day. Nextdoor’s site provides a Facebook wall-like forum for general topics, a Craigslist-like listing for buying, selling or giving away things and a database for neighbor-recommended local services.
“Nextdoor is not the place to post pictures of your recent family vacation,” Tolia explains. “It’s all about improving life in the local community with things like personal recommendations and local events, as well as updates on crime, safety and civic issues.” The platform strongly emphasizes privacy and quality of interaction.
“As your life changes and you get older, where you live becomes an integral part of who you are,” says Tolia. “We digitally interact with businesses and communities like Yelp and Groupon, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t focus on the physical community interaction too.”
Nextdoor is about building a trusting community both on and offline. It’s also about bringing back those old-fashioned values. Now, if you actually needed to borrow a cup of sugar, you may actually consider asking your neighbors for some. The following infographic from Nextdoor explains more about what happens when neighbors start talking:
Guest author Stephanie Nguyen loves digital storytelling, the data way. Follow her on Twitter @nguyenist.
