Geo-networking apps on mobile phones are scorching right now as everyone is trying draft off FourSquare. Today, FourSquare competitor Gowalla raised an $8.4 million Series B round, led by Greylock Partners. Reid Hoffman, who is now a partner at Greylock, will take an observer seat on Gowalla’s board.

Other new investors include Shasta Ventures, Maples Investments, Ron Conway, Kevin Rose, Gary Vaynerchuk, Shervin Pishevar, Jason Calacanis and Chris Sacca. Previous investors the Founders Fund and Alsop-Louis Partners put in more money as well. The Austin-based startup has now raised a total of about $10 million since it was founded in 2007.

Since the public launch of Gowalla’s service just ten weeks ago, 50,000 people have signed up and checked into 150,000 locations in over 7,500 cities worldwide. The company is currently seeing 20,000 check-ins daily. Like FourSqaure, you check in at places you want your friends to know you are at, and then they can see where you are and join you if they are nearby. But Gowalla has its own gaming elements which are different than FourSquare as well.

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Via | TechCrunch

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