Nextdoor to go public via merger with Khosla-backed SPAC

Nextdoor, a neighborhood network, has agreed to go public via a merger with Khosla Ventures Acquisition Co, a blank check company backed by Khosla Ventures. The newly combined company will list under the ticker symbol “KIND.”

PRESS RELEASE

Nextdoor, Inc. (“Nextdoor”), the neighborhood network, and Khosla Ventures Acquisition Co. II (Nasdaq:KVSB) (“KVSB”), a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by an affiliate of Khosla Ventures, LLC (“Khosla Ventures”), today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Nextdoor would become a publicly listed company. Upon closing of the proposed transaction, the combined company will be listed under the ticker symbol “KIND”.

Nextdoor’s purpose is to cultivate a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood they can rely on. When Nextdoor was founded, it was apparent that despite technology’s ability to connect people and communities virtually across the globe, in actuality people had become more disconnected, especially in real life. Nextdoor was founded to leverage technology to enable real-world connection.

Today, Nextdoor is in more than 275,000 neighborhoods around the world. In the United States, nearly 1 in 3 households turn to Nextdoor to access trusted information, give and get help, and build real-world connections with those nearby — neighbors, businesses, and public services. Nextdoor is the neighborhood network that brings all of these stakeholders together to get things done locally and build thriving communities.
Nextdoor offers organizations of all sizes distinct and differentiated products that allow them to connect to neighbors that are receptive to their offerings as a valuable part of the neighborhood ecosystem. Additionally, Nextdoor enables businesses to reach customers locally, at scale. Nextdoor’s audience is unique and, in many cases, is not active on other social media and commerce platforms.

We believe that Nextdoor’s business will strengthen as it scales, benefitting from network effects across the ecosystem. We are driving growth by:
increasing neighbors in our network by introducing new products and expanding in markets around the globe;
increasing engagement on our platform by making it easier to engage, share interests, and create meaningful connections; and
increasing monetization on our platform by scaling our proprietary advertising platform that can service clients from the largest advertisers in the world to small local businesses and neighbors for hire.
Nextdoor’s business combination with KVSB will provide access to new capital, which will be used to accelerate Nextdoor’s growth plans including hiring, expanding monetization, and continuing to develop products to build stronger, more vibrant, and resilient neighborhoods.

“Nextdoor has been at the forefront of cultivating ‘hyperlocal’ communities and neighborhoods since its inception, allowing neighbors to create meaningful connections – both online and offline,” said Sarah Friar, Chief Executive Officer of Nextdoor. “Our business strengthens as we scale, benefiting from strong network effects, and we believe the proposed transaction with KVSB accelerates the growth potential of our platform. We remain focused on optimizing our strategy and investing in products to drive continued neighbor and organization acquisition and engagement.”

“We have long focused on partnering with cutting-edge, category-defining companies with tremendous growth potential, strong management teams and, importantly, clearly defined missions. Nextdoor exhibits all of these qualities and more, and we look forward to continuing our partnership and accelerating Nextdoor’s growth as a public company,” said Vinod Khosla, Founder of KVSB and Managing Director of Khosla Ventures.
Following the merger, Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar, Co-Founders Nirav Tolia, Sarah Leary and Prakash Janakiraman, and founding investor Bill Gurley will each contribute a portion of their personal ownership in Nextdoor to form and sustainably fund the Nextdoor Kind Foundation, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to helping neighbors rejuvenate their neighborhoods through targeted grants.

Key Transaction Terms
Concurrently with the consummation of the transaction, additional investors have committed to purchase shares of Class A common stock of KVSB at $10.00 per share in a private placement (the “PIPE”) to occur concurrently with the proposed business combination. The upsized $270 million PIPE investment includes participation from institutional investors, including funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Baron Capital Group, Dragoneer, Soroban Capital, accounts advised by ARK Invest, and ION Asset Management, in addition to existing Nextdoor investors Tiger Global and Hedosophia. Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar and Khosla Ventures affiliates each participated in the PIPE financing. Approximately $416 million in cash held in the KVSB trust account, together with the approximately $270 million in PIPE proceeds, excluding transaction expenses, will be used to support new and existing growth initiatives. All references to cash on the balance sheet, available cash from the trust account and retained transaction proceeds are subject to any redemptions by public stockholders of KVSB and payment of transaction expenses.

Nextdoor’s management team, led by CEO Sarah Friar and CFO Mike Doyle will continue to lead Nextdoor following the transaction.

The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of Nextdoor and KVSB, is subject to approval by KVSB stockholders and other customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.
A more detailed description of the transaction terms and a copy of the Agreement and Plan of Merger will be included in a current report on Form 8-K to be filed by KVSB with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). KVSB will file a registration statement (which will contain a proxy statement/prospectus) with the SEC in connection with the transaction.

Advisors
Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC (“Morgan Stanley”) and Evercore Group L.L.C. (“Evercore”) are serving as joint-lead financial advisors to Nextdoor and placement agents to institutional investors for the PIPE to KVSB. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor to KVSB. Fenwick & West LLP is serving as legal counsel to Nextdoor. Latham & Watkins LLP is acting as legal counsel to KVSB. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is acting as legal counsel to Morgan Stanley and Evercore as placement agents to institutional investors to KVSB.

Management Presentation
Nextdoor and KVSB management will host a conference call on July 6, 2021 at 8:00 AM Eastern Time to review an investor presentation. The conference call can be accessed at investors.nextdoor.com. The presentation will also be filed with the SEC by KVSB as an exhibit to a Current Report on Form 8-K, which can be viewed on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

About Nextdoor
Nextdoor is the app where you connect to the neighborhoods that matter to you. Nextdoor’s purpose is to cultivate a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood they can rely on. Neighbors around the world turn to Nextdoor daily to receive trusted information, give and get help, and build real-world connections with those nearby — neighbors, businesses, and public services. Today, neighbors rely on Nextdoor in more than 275,000 neighborhoods across 11 countries. In the U.S., nearly 1 in 3 households use Nextdoor. Nextdoor is based in San Francisco. For additional information and images: nextdoor.com/newsroom.

About KVSB
KVSB is a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by affiliates of Khosla Ventures. Khosla Ventures manages a series of venture capital funds that make early-stage venture capital investments and provide strategic advice to entrepreneurs building companies with lasting significance. The firm was founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Khosla Ventures has over $14 billion dollars of assets under management and focuses on a broad range of sectors including artificial intelligence, agriculture/food, consumer, enterprise, financial services, health, space, sustainable energy, robotics, VR/AR and 3D printing. Collectively, Khosla Ventures portfolio of investments has created nearly half a trillion dollars in market value.