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With new $4B valuation, Clubhouse prepares Android launch

Clubhouse is coming to Android phones as early as next month.

What’s going on: With fresh funding and a new multi-billion-dollar valuation, Clubhouse is eyeing world domination. By launching Clubhouse on Android phones, the Silicon Valley darling will now be able to reach tens of millions more users around the globe.

The hype continues: Clubhouse raised a Series C round of an undisclosed amount, led by Andrew Chen of Andreessen Horowitz, that values the 1-year-old company at $4 billion — 4x its value in December 2020. Clubhouse co-founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth said on Feb. 21 that Clubhouse — which is available only on iOS — has more than 10 million weekly active users — up from 2 million in January.

What it means: Although Clubhouse has enjoyed a meteoric rise, it’s competing in an increasingly crowded space. To solidify itself as the audio platform for creators, Clubhouse has rolled out a direct payments feature to users receive cash without a cut. An Android version of Clubhouse will help it land many more creators as the company’s list of giant competitors — which includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Slack — continues to grow.

Android inevitability: Though Clubhouse’s invite-only and iOS-exclusive approach grew its allure, it was only a matter of time before it launched an Android version. Android is the dominant mobile operating system throughout the world. About 84 percent of smartphones shipped in 2020 ran Andriod, compared to about 16 percent running iOS, according to the International Data Corporation..


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Good timing: Clubhouse said its new funding will be used to fuel hiring, scale its international reach, invest in localization and accessibility features, and launch more programs like its new accelerator. More team capacity should help Clubhouse alleviate issues it recently acknowledged with struggling servers and its outdated discovery algorithms.

“Fundraising is only important because it allows us to keep focusing on the product and the community, and we’re so excited to continue to build Clubhouse with you. We are hiring across all areas, so if you are excited about our mission, we’d love to hear from you.” —Clubhouse on April 18

Investors galore: Clubhouse has courted many of the largest investors in Silicon Valley and beyond. In addition to its latest round — which featured Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, Tiger Global, and Elad Gil — the Clubhouse said it now has nearly 200 investors, including members of the Clubhouse community, professional musicians, athletes, and comedians.

Twitter considering Clubhouse? Twitter reportedly held acquisition discussions with Clubhouse for a roughly $4 billion deal. The conversations apparently spanned a few months but have since fizzled out. In December Twitter began testing Spaces, its own audio conversation platform that it hopes to publicly debut in April.

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on April 19, 2021
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