GroupMe in $30M Bid War

New York-based group texting startup GroupMe is caught in the middle of an East Coast vs. West Coast venture capital brawl, pushing it’s valuation north of $30 million, according to a report.

Bidding from the West Coast included big names Sequoia, Andresseen Horowitz, and Khosla Ventures, while East Coast bidders included General Catalyst, Flybridge, and Union Square Ventures, according to the Silicon Alley Insider.

GroupMe lets users create mobile groups of users that can be contacted with a single phone number. Groups can be created around friends and family members, or around shared interests and events. The company demoed its service back in October at the New York Tech Meetup alongside bootstrapped competitor Fast Society with entertaining results.

An unnamed source quoted by SAI described GroupMe’s growth as “nuts – thousands of percent.”

Union Square Ventures pulled out of the bidding part way through over concerns that GroupMe’s service could overlap with another portfolio company, Twitter.

The microblogging giant actually considered purchasing GroupMe outright, but backed off as the price rose. Instead, Twitter decided to build its own version of the service internally.

According to reports, the California-based Khosla Ventures is prepared to up the ante yet again by valuing GroupMe at $33 million. Just a year ago, GroupMe received $700,000 in its first round of funding.

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