Nextdoor—the 'Facebook for Neighborhoods—Catching on with Investors and Users

Mike Isaac reports on the expanding reach of Nextdoor—a San Francisco-based social networking start-up aimed at building community.

According to Isaac, "[investors] think Nextdoor is on to something. The company will announce on Wednesday that it has raised $110 million in venture capital from investors like Redpoint Ventures and Insight Venture Partners. The new investment values the three-and-a-half-year-old start-up at about $1.1 billion, putting the company among the sharply rising number of tech start-ups with 10-figure valuations."

Isaac adds that the investments indicate an interest in small (i.e., neighborhood-sized) communities. And neighborhoods are Nextdoor's niche. "Nextdoor has slowly built a network of more than 53,000 microcommunities across the United States, all based on local neighborhood boundaries. Nextdoor restricts communication to only those people who live close to one another; users are required to verify their identity and home address upon signing up," writes Isaac. Planetizen described Nextdoor as the "Facebook for neighborhoods" in April of 2014.

A day after Isaac's article was published, Oklahoma City announced that it had adopted a municipal profile on Nextdoor, to join the 200-plus neighborhoods in the city already using the social media platform. The city intends to use Nextdoor as a community engagement tool for the sharing of information in both directions.