Foursquare, a mobile and web application launched in 2009 known primarily for local places search service to its users, recently raised $45 million in equity financing on a series E round. The funding round was led by Union Square Ventures. Other participants include Andreessen Horowitz, Morgan Stanley, A16z, Spark Capital and DFJ Growth.
Also, Foursquare’s previous COO, Jeff Glueck, stepped up as the CEO and replaced Dennis Crowley who is moving to an executive chairman position. Other changes include Chief Revenue Officer Steven Rosenblatt becoming the company’s president.
Foursquare has since divided into two different applications, Swarm for location check-ins and Foursquare for location search and recommendations. However according to the company, the bulk of their revenues come from selling data on consumer trends to businesses. The money that Foursquare raised will be used to improve on this area.
According to reports, the company has over 50 million monthly active users and has over 7.8 billion check-ins total. From the equity financing, Foursquare’s current valuation is estimated to be half of its $650 million valuation in 2013.
“Good things happen to companies who are performing really well,” Crowley said. “If we continue performing how we have been, we’ll find that we have a lot of options down the line.”
Source: NYTimes, techcrunch
