Where unicorns graze: valuation growth and a possible round of investments in the Clubhouse

In the past few weeks, investors in a number of funds approached the founders of the Clubhouse startup with a proposal to lead a new round. At the same time, the company’s assessment at this stage, when the application does not bring profit, is announced at $1B. Last night it became known that Clubhouse had confirmed the raise of investments in round B, the amount was not disclosed.

The news is interesting because this estimate is 10 times higher than the one announced just 8 months ago, when the startup closed the round. Then it was estimated at $100M despite the fact that the application was in beta stage, had 5 thousand users-testers (today their number reaches 2 million) and was not available in the app store. The lead investor was the Andreessen Horowitz fund, known for investments in BuzzFeed and Coinbase, and they also led the new round. The growth rate of Clubhouse can be a starting point for the growth of ratings for tech startups.

Clubhouse is a platform through which it is possible to join online rooms and participate in voice chat. The application works like a social network: users subscribe to the virtual rooms of their friends or personalities of interest to them. So, in the application were noticed large Silicon Valley investors and Hollywood stars.

The investments received will be directed, among other things, to the development of a program to support beginner content creators on the platform, the founders (including Paul Davison, a former Google engineer known for the Highlight application) shared their plans for development in a blog. The platform still does not sell ads, so the author support program, which will work on the principle of paid subscriptions and will provide an opportunity to make donations, is the first step towards monetizing the application.

The initial success of the startup is associated with the lockdown: people locked in their apartments missed spontaneous meetings with friends. It is this spontaneity that works outside the calendar of meetings that the experts noted and mark as a “feature” of the project, which hit the target and the demands of the audience, tired of life by the organizer.