Public finance startup Neighbourly has raised $25m in a Series A funding round led by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale fund 8VC and Emerson Collective.
Follow-on funding for the San Francisco company also came form Ashton Kutcher at Sound Ventures, Maven Ventures, Bee Partners and Stanford University.
New backers Govtech Fund, Abstract.vc and Fintech Collective also participated.
Neighbourly aims to modernise public financing by connecting borrowing communities with investors to allow cities to more easily issue debt and enable people to invest directly into their community.
The company points to rising interest rates and reduced federal funding as key challenges to public projects that create a need to open municipal bonds up to more potential investors.
Neighbourly says it has financed almost $25m for community projects including public projects including bike lanes, building renovations, energy efficiency upgrades and conservation.
The new round takes the company total disclosed funding to more than $30m with it previously picking up $5.5m in a Seed round from Formation 8 and Sound Ventures in 2015.
Copyright ? 2017 FINTECH GLOBAL
