Neighborly is a San Francisco-based public finance company that finances public projects for communities. The company has financed nearly $25m for communities since the start of 2017, from California to Massachusetts. Projects financed include bike lanes, building renovations, energy efficiency upgrades, and conservation. Neighborly raised $25m in a Series A funding round. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations, hire new people, and broaden its reach. Investors in the round include 8VC, Emerson Collective, Sound Ventures, Maven Ventures, Bee Partners, Stanford University, Govtech Fund, Abstract.vc and Fintech Collective. Neighborly builds a platform to connect retail (particularly millennial) investors with municipal debt that funds local projects. Users create personal profiles specifying investment size, return and risk preferences and receive notifications about upcoming sales and issuances. The platform applies machine learning to evaluate municipal bond risk alongside traditional analysts and rating agencies. On the city side, Neighborly offers document storage and management to reduce legal and advisor work in issuances. The company shifted from a neighborhood crowdfunding model back to its original focus on large-scale municipal debt. Neighborly positions this approach as a way to lower borrowing costs for local projects and reduce reliance on investment banks. The total municipal market it targets is roughly $3.7 trillion, and the firm argues inefficiencies currently extract an estimated $60 billion from issuances.

Total raised

$31M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

May 2017