Not on Citizen’s watch
Nabe-safe app nixed VC invest over control
THE controversial neighborhoodwatch app Citizen rejected an investment offer from Andreessen Horowitz — and it may have been because the venture-capital giant wanted too much control over the company, The Post has learned.
Andreessen Horowitz — a legendary VC firm known for lucrative investments in companies like Airbnb, Lyft, Coinbase and Slack — was in discussions with Citizen during the summer of 2017 to invest in the company’s $12 million Series A funding round, two people close to Citizen told The Post.
But Citizen — which gives more than 7 million users across 30 cities realtime alerts about reported emergencies — turned down Andreessen Horowitz and eventually replaced its spot in the round with an investment from rival Sequoia Capital, the sources said.
Citizen bucked Andreessen Horowitz’s offer in part because it would’ve given the venture capital firm too much say in the company’s operations, according to an ex-employee who worked at Citizen at the time.
“The conversation around the office was they didn’t want to get tied in,” said the former employee. “There were too many strings attached.”
Citizen’s leadership believed that other potential investors including Sequoia would give more flexibility to operate however they saw fit, the exemployee added. In an e-mailed statement to The Post, Citizen CEO Andrew Frame called the exemployee’s description of the Andreessen Horowitz negotiation “a patently false rumor.”
Andreessen Horowitz did not reply to multiple requests for comment.
In a statement to The Post, a Citizen spokesperson defended the app — which has a history of privacy complaints — by saying it has “helped countless people escape burning buildings, rescue missing children, and evacuate disaster areas.”