Foursquare Valued at More Than $250 Million, May Seek New Funding in 2011
January 24th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Foursquare Labs Inc., the wireless service that lets users broadcast their whereabouts to friends, is valued at more than $250 million and will probably hold another round of financing later this year, its co-founder said in an interview with Bloomberg
The service, with more than 6 million users, “pulls in some revenue from big brands,” although it’s not yet interested in offering shares to the public, co-founder Naveen Selvadurai said in an interview
at the MIDEM music industry conference in Cannes, France, this weekend.
Foursquare, which Selvadurai said will probably have 10 million users by June, faces increasing competition from location-based services now offered by social media sites Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. Foursquare expects to profit by forming more partnership with local businesses and offering more recommendations, including places to have dinner or grab a drink after a music concert or show.
“Other sites want to keep you inside at the computer, while our entire goal is to get you out of the house,” Selvadurai said.
New York City-based Foursquare will probably double the number of its employees to 120 by the end of the year, he said. The company in June 2010 raised $20 million from investors led by Andreessen Horowitz, in a deal that valued it at $120 million, he said.
The site, which has advertising deals with companies like PepsiCo Inc., Safeway Inc. and Zagat Survey LLC, has 60 percent of its users in the U.S.
Twitter Chairman Jack Dorsey is a Foursquare investor. The mobile-payments company Dorsey started last year, Square Inc., shares office space with Foursquare at its New York location, Selvadurai said.
(the story was pitched from Bloomberg
