Jan 25, 2021 - Economy

Voice chat app Clubhouse raises $100 million

Dan Primack

Clubhouse, a San Francisco-based audio social network, raised around $100 million led by existing investor Andreessen Horowitz at a $1 billion post-money valuation, Axios has learned. The deal was publicly announced, but the dollar details were not.

Why it matters: The startup says it had two million users last week, despite having launched less than a year ago and keeping a very tight handle on new invites until quite recently. It also now plans to launch a program to monetize creators, which could both increase usage and open up Clubhouse's own revenue spigot.

Details: Clubhouse says it now has "over 180 investors.” That sounds like startup cap table hell, but word is that most of those backers fit on a single line via a zero-fee SPV.

The bottom line: This is a very high-risk/high-reward bet.

The risk is that the audio boom is being artificially inflated by the stay-at-home pandemic, and that Andreessen Horowitz's confidence is colored by some of its partners' own addictions to using Clubhouse.
The reward is that this is the next evolution of social networking, and that Andreessen Horowitz just preempted other investors like Sequoia Capital once did with WhatsApp.

Add Axios on Google

Voice chat app Clubhouse raises $100 million

What to read next