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Clubhouse has raised Series C funding from its partners. The amount is undisclosed but the startup says the round was led by Andrew Chen at a16z and had participation from major investors including DST Global, Tiger Global, and Elad Gil.
The startup released its iOS app in March 2020 and raised funds at a $100 million valuation in May of the same year. The stay-at-home order brought about by the covid-19 pandemic helped to increase the app’s popularity and in January 2021, it raised a fresh series B fund at a valuation of $1 billion.
Now a unicorn, the startup’s valuation has grown exponentially since its first raise and its latest raise is reportedly at a valuation of $4 billion according to market rumours.
The Clubhouse Drop-in audio chat app logo on the App Store is seen displayed on a phone screen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on April 6, 2021.
The startup has made strides in just over 1 year of existence with the launch of payments (still in beta phase) for creators and preparation for its android version.
Reports show that Mopewa Ogundipe will be heading the team to develop Clubhouse android app as creators start getting paid.
With this raise, the unicorn says it will be focusing on scaling its team heavily to support international growth. So far in 2021, it has quadrupled the size of its team.
It will also “invest in localization and accessibility features, launch more programs like the Creator First accelerator to help creators get paid, invest deeply in discovery to help people find the best rooms, and continue to scale our support and community health teams.”
The raise is coming on the heels of efforts by different big tech companies to offer Clubhouse clones. Facebook’s Clubhouse-like product that will let groups of people listen to and interact with speakers on a virtual stage is scheduled to go live this week.
Twitter already launched ‘Spaces’, which also lets people join virtual audio conversations. Bloomberg reported that Twitter held talks to buy the invite-only app at a $4 billion valuation. However, the talks have been suspended.
Spotify and LinkedIn are equally preparing features that deliver experiences similar to the audio-only app. The competition is stiffer for Clubhouse as more big tech gets on board with its mix of live podcasting and virtual conferencing.
With an android rollout in the works, its number of downloads that has slowed in the past few months will shoot up again. The undisclosed funds will help it to capitalize on its fading novelty and chart a path towards sustainable growth.
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