Stanford University has contributed to a series A round for Neighborly, which focuses on providing public finance.
Neighborly, a US-based operator of a public finance platform, collected $25m in series A capital on Tuesday from a consortium of investors that included Stanford University.
The round was co-led by venture capital firm 8VC and impact investment firm Emerson Collective, with participation from Sound Ventures, Maven Ventures, Bee Partners, Govtech Fund, Abstract.vc and Fintech Collective.
Founded in 2012, Neighborly operates a municipal debt platform that enables cities and towns to borrow money from local investors keen to support their communities.
The company aims to counteract increasing borrowing costs of banks, reduced federal funding options and an ever-growing list of public projects backlogs. Neighborly has financed close to $25m in projects this year alone, ranging from bike lanes and building renovations to conservation.
Neighborly did not clarify what it will use the series A round for, though the company is currently hiring across its engineering, product and marketplace teams.
In 2015, Sound Ventures and Formation 8 (a predecessor to 8VC) co-led a $5.5m seed round in Neighborly. Stanford University, through the StartX fund, and Innotech Capitals also participated in that round, according to deals database PitchBook.
