Nextdoor is the latest proptech company to try its hand at the SPAC market.
The San Francisco-based social networking service for neighborhoods said Tuesday that it plans to go public through a special purpose acquisition company, raising $686 million and valuing the company at $4.3 billion, the New York Times reported. That’s in line with the $4 billion to $5 billion valuation the company was reportedly targeting when it first announced plans to go public in October.
Nextdoor will be backed primarily by Khosla Ventures, a Silicon Valley firm, but the SPAC also includes participation from T. Rowe Price Associates, Baron Capital Group and Dragoneer Investment Group as well as existing investors such as Tiger Global.
Founded in 2011, Nextdoor was designed as a hyper-local version of Facebook, fostering small, tight-knit social groups based on proximity, though it has faced criticism for enabling racial profiling and the spread of misinformation. The company now counts more than 275,000 “neighborhood” communities across 11 countries. It derives most of its revenue from advertising for local businesses and real estate brokers.
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Nextdoor will be publicly traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “KIND.”
Over the past year, proptech companies have flocked to SPAC deals, which allows them to circumvent a traditional initial public offering and provide a potential windfall to company insiders. Recently, however, the market has recently come under increased scrutiny from the SEC.
Smartlock maker Latch is among the most recent proptech firms to go public on the SPAC market, raising $453 million.
[NYTimes] — Keith Larsen