The struggling mobile app’s hipster founder, 39, is being replaced as chief executive by operating chief Jeff Glueck as the company raises $45 million in fresh capital. Crowley will be executive chairman.
The New York startup which, since 2009, has struggled under Crowley to make its location-sharing app profitable, likely took a sharp markdown in the latest funding round from an earlier valuation of $650 million in 2013.
Indeed, Re/code reported last month that the round would peg Foursquare at about $250 million. The latest round was led by Union Square Ventures, the New York firm headed by Fred Wilson that was one of Foursquare’s earliest backers.
“Maybe no USV portfolio company (with the exception of Twitter) has taken it on the chin more for being the ‘hot company that fell out of favor,’ ” Wilson wrote of Foursquare in a Thursday blog post ahead of the announcement. “And yet sitting here today, Foursquare has built a very real business that is growing nicely and has a very bright future.”
Other participants included Andreessen Horowitz, DFJ Growth and Spark Capital. Morgan Stanley also joined the latest round.
Despite years of troubles, backers are now enthusiastic about Foursquare’s relatively new business of selling its location data to advertisers — a niche whose growth has been spearheaded by Glueck.
Big tech firms including Microsoft and Twitter also use Foursquare’s technology to track the whereabouts of shoppers, restaurant and bar patrons and concertgoers in real time.
By: James Covert.
Review: Emerging Market Formulations & Research Unit, Flagship Records.
For The #FacebookTeam