Neighborly

Neighborly
Private
Industry Investing online
Founded 2012
Founder Jase Wilson
Patrick Hosty
Headquarters San Francisco, CA (2015-pres.)
Kansas City, MO (2012-2015)
Products Municipal bond
Website neighborly.com

Neighborly is a San Francisco-based online investment platform that allows individuals to invest in civic projects through municipal bonds. The company began as a donation-based civic crowdfunding platform for civic projects.[1] Neighborly has since evolved toward becoming an investing platform.[2] Neighborly provides publicly available finance information on its website and sells municipal securities through its affiliated registered broker-dealer, Neighborly Securities.[3][4]

History

Neighborly was founded in July 2012 in Kansas City, Missouri by Jase Wilson, a civic technologist trained in urban planning at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,[5] and Patrick Hosty, a municipal bond trader at financial firm Valdes & Moreno.[6]

During the company’s first two years of operation, Neighborly facilitated donations for 55 community projects that collectively raised over $2,500,000.[7]

In July 2013, Neighborly received a $175,000 grant from the Knight Foundation.[8]

In April 2014, Neighborly won the 14th Annual Global Technology Symposium, held at Draper University in San Mateo, beating 8 other companies from 7 different countries.[9] In October 2014, Neighborly completed the 500 Startups Accelerator.[10][11]

In July 2015, Neighborly introduced the concept of ‘civic microbonds’ to lower the minimum denomination required to invest in municipal bonds.[12]

In an effort to better raise seed funding, Neighborly's operations were moved from Kansas City to San Francisco in 2015. The move paid off when, in August 2015, Neighborly secured $5.5M seed financing led by Joe Lonsdale's Formation 8 and Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures.[13][14]

In May 2017 Neighborly announced[15] it raised a $25 million Series A round. The investment was led by Joe Lonsdale at 8VC, Laurene Powell Jobs at Emerson Collective, with follow-on participation from Ashton Kutcher at Sound Ventures, Maven Ventures, Bee Partners, and Stanford University. New investors were: Govtech Fund, Abstract.vc, and Fintech Collective.

References

  1. ↑ "Can crowdfunding kickstart struggling cities?". The Daily Dot.
  2. ↑ Amanda Albright (12 August 2015). "Want a Bike Path? Pay for It Yourself". Bloomberg.com.
  3. ↑ "BrokerCheck - NEIGHBORLY SECURITIES". Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
  4. ↑ Chayka, Kyle (30 April 2015). "Want to Invest in Your City? Try the New Kickstarter for Municipal Bonds". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  5. ↑ Blanding, Michael. "Visible hand". MIT News. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  6. ↑ Andrew Han. "Neighborly: Invest money in social good". Stanford Daily.
  7. ↑ Cortese, Amy (10 July 2015). "Putting the Public Back in Public Finance". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  8. ↑ Scott, Ryan (7 January 2016). "Addressing Poverty Through Digital and Financial Literacy". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  9. ↑ "Neighbor.ly's Jase Wilson wins Silicon Valley pitch competition - Silicon Prairie News". Silicon Prairie News.
  10. ↑ "Neighborly". 500.co. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  11. ↑ Kyle Russell. "Our Four Favorite Companies From The 500 Startups Demo Day". TechCrunch.
  12. ↑ Culpepper, Kristi (18 September 2015). "Will Neighborly Disrupt the Municipal Bond Market? (No.)". Medium.com.
  13. ↑ Kim-Mai Cutler. "Neighborly Raises $5.5M From Joe Lonsdale's Formation 8, Ashton Kutcher To Transform The Municipal Debt Market". TechCrunch.
  14. ↑ http://news.mit.edu/2016/visible-hand-neighborly-jase-wilson-0208
  15. ↑ "Neighborly Raised a Series A | Neighborly". Neighborly Learning Center. 2017-05-16. Retrieved 2017-06-07.
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