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Airbnb now worth more than Interconti
AirBNB founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk
AirBNB jumps to $10billion valuation in big endorsement of sharing economy
Airbnb is set to join Dropbox and WhatsApp in Silicon Valley’s $10bn valuation club with a private fundraising that will price the upstart home-rental site at $2bn more than the InterContinental hotel chain.
Worth just $2.5bn after its last round two years ago, the sharp rise in Airbnb’s valuation to $10bn is seen by supporters of the sharing economy as a big endorsement of a new business model.
Airbnb’s rise has been meteoric. Founded in 2008 by roommates who rented out beds to help pay for their San Francisco loft, the company said at the end of last year that it has hosted more than 11m guests in 34,000 cities around the world.
As well as joining that elite group of private technology companies in the US to attain an 11-figure valuation, Airbnb is the latest to seek private equity funding that will allow it to delay an initial public offering. The deal was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The company is raising more than $400m to help expand its peer-to-peer home renting marketplace into a broader offering of "hospitality", including transport or cleaning services, said co-founder Brian Chesky, now chief executive.
TPG, the private equity group that also led sharing-economy rival Uber’s fundraising last year, will lead the Airbnb investment, according to sources close to the discussions. Airbnb: early check-in
HomeAway , another holiday rentals site that also owns Airbnb rival VRBO, went public in 2011 and has a $3.9bn market capitalisation on Nasdaq.
San Francisco-based Airbnb had early success in cities such as New York and London, thanks to a combination of lower prices than hotels and the promise of a local’s guide to the area. Now, it is looking beyond western metropolitan destinations.
In a blogpost last month, Airbnb said that reservations were growing fastest in more exotic locations including Barbados, Marrakesh, the Bahamas and Greek islands.
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