Foursquare raises $50M to build out merchant platform

Foursquare has completed a new $50 million funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with contributions from existing investors O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and Union Square Ventures as well as new investor Spark Capital. TechCrunch reports foursquare is now valued at $600 million.

Writing on the foursquare Blog, co-founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai said the additional capital will enable to firm to evolve its merchant offering, hire new engineers and expand internationally. Although foursquare is synonymous with user check-ins at local venues, Crowley and Selvadurai say the service is "about making the world easier to use," with an emphasis on discovering new places and connecting with friends.

Last week, foursquare--which launched in March 2009--topped 10 million users worldwide, with check-ins at local venues now surpassing 3 million each day. Despite media buzz and investor excitement around services like foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt, mobile check-in services remain a niche interest. According to data issued last month by digital research firm comScore, only 16.7 million U.S. wireless subscribers checked in at local destinations via mobile device in March 2011, corresponding to 7.1 percent of the total nationwide mobile population.

For more:
- read this TechCrunch article

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