EQT Ventures has led a USD12 million Series A funding round in Peanut, a newly launched social network for women.
Index Ventures and Female Founders Fund also participated in this round, bringing the company’s total funding to USD 21.8 million.
The fresh capital will be used to launch new communities beyond [the already existing] areas of fertility and motherhood, including a space for women living with menopause.
Lyle Fong, partner at EQT Ventures, will use his expertise in community-focused products to aid Peanut’s next stage of growth.
“Lyle’s unprecedented experience of building and scaling community-focused products will be vital as we undertake our next stage of growth in raising the bar in terms of product excellence as we enter new communities beyond fertility and motherhood” comments Peanut CEO Michelle Kennedy.
Naza Metghalchi from EQT joins Peanut’s majority-female board in connection with the deal, alongside Hannah Seal from Index Ventures, which led Peanut’s previous round.
With 1.6 million users, Peanut connects women at similar life stages. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, engagement across the app has been up 30 percent and there has been a 40 percent increase in content consumption.
The app aims to provide a safe and supportive environment for women during this unprecedented time.
Peanut launched ‘Mute Keywords’ this month, a feature allowing users to remove certain discussions from their feeds and notifications. For example, if a user wants to see less content around COVID-19, they can mute this keyword.
If someone is going through fertility challenges, they can mute conversations around the word ‘pregnancy’ for example, that may be emotionally triggering.
This highlights Peanut’s focus on a personalised experience, including safeguards for those dealing with stress, anxiety and other mental health issues, according to the company.
Peanut was launched in 2017 by Michelle Kennedy, who previously served as the deputy CEO at multi-billion dollar dating app Badoo. Kennedy was also an inaugural board member of dating app Bumble.