Local Social Network Nextdoor Raises $123 Million

Cementing its position in the social network sector, which has generated a great deal of attention recently for its Facebook-driven barriers to entry, hyperlocal startup Nextdoor is announcing $123 million in fresh funding. The company also expands to Sweden and Denmark today, bringing its total countries of operation to 10.

Riverwood Capital led the round, which makes Nextdoor a unicorn two times over with a valuation of $2.1 billion.

Nextdoor is active in 236,000 neighborhoods around the globe, where people use it to communicate with nearby residents about local news and life updates. In this sense, it’s something of a combination of what people initially loved about Facebook—profiles tied to real identities—and a supplement to a local news scene still reeling from Facebook and Google’s dominance of digital advertising.

The digital advertising proposition for Nextdoor is obvious—what better way to drive customers into nearby brick-and-mortar stores than to generate buzz on a social platform centered on users’ physical location? Venture capitalists see the value proposition, as Chris Varelas, co-founder and managing partner at Riverwood, proclaimed Nextdoor as the “future of local community and commerce.”