Nextdoor raises $60 million from KPCB and Tiger Global

Social network for neighborhoods has now raised $100 million in just 18 months

(Updated to reflect comment from Nextdoor)

For me, getting to know my neighbors is still a strange thing. It's just not the environment that I grew up in and its an alien concept. But then I realize that, hey I could have kids in a few years, and, yeah, it would actually pretty important to know who exactly these people are who are living across the street. Plus, I'm living in earthquake central, so having a place to run to would also be nice. 

Nextdoor, a local social network for neighborhoods, is trying to bring back the concept of the community. And it has now raised $60 million in new funding, the company announced on Tuesday.

The round was led by new investors John Doerr and Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Lee Fixel of Tiger Global Management. The round also included Comcast Ventures, as well as previous investors, Benchmark, Greylock Partners, and Shasta Ventures.

"We’re planning to use the money to continue building the best product. That means hiring across all departments, particularly in engineering and product development, and further developing the existing platform with an increased focus on mobile development," a Nextdoor spokesperson told VatorNews.

The San Francisco-based company previously raised $18.6 million from Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Greylock Partners, Shasta Ventures, Allen & Company and Pinnacle Ventures in July of 2012, followed by a $21.6 million round from Greylock Partners, Benchmark, Shasta Ventures, DAG Ventures, Allen & Company, Pinnacle Ventures, Bezos Expeditions and Google Ventures in February.

That brings the company's total fundraising to just over $100 million in only 18 months.

Launched in October 2011, Nextdoor creates private neighborhood sites, where people in a specific neighborhood can get to know each other and ask each other questions, exchange local advice and recommendations, and organize virtual neighborhood watches to reduce crime.

Each website is password-protected and not accessible by search engines, and each member must verify their address to join so that other members can trust who they are sharing their information with. 

The service has been growing quickly. It is now used in over 22,500 neighborhoods across the country, with a presence in every one out of every seven neighborhoods. It launched in New York City in June, and had more than 1,800 neighborhood websites, across all five boroughs, created almost immediately.

In fact, Nextdoor has proven to be so popular that the number of neighborhoods using the site has gone up by 400% in the just the last year. It includes more than 120 city governments, and four of the ten largest cities in the U.S., including San Diego, Dallas and San Jose.

Nextdoor is about more than just getting to know the people who live adjacent to you, though. It has also been putting a greater focus on helping to fight neighborhood crime.

Earlier this year it launched version 2.0 of the service, which included a newly-designed user interface, the ability for neighbors to reach nearby neighborhoods with relevant information and an enhanced focus on helping neighbors create virtual neighborhood watches to fight crime.

Nextdoor also added a dedicated section for Crime and Safety, with Urgent Alerts so that time-sensitive notifications will be sent out immediately. The service has also added the ability for police and fire departments to share updates with members.

On top of that, there is now also a new Nearby Neighborhoods feature, which lets members share information with surrounding neighborhoods as well, while still maintaining privacy. This feature can be useful in cases such as break-ins, finding a lost pet or promoting a local garage sale. 

(Image source: https://nextdoor.com)