TechnesstivityAirbnb Seeks $400M In Funding At Valuation Close To $10B
Popular San Francisco based company Airbnb is reported to be raising over $400M according to the WSJ in late stage funding. The website, which enables users to rent and occupy rooms and houses has experienced tremendous growth in the past two years with over 600,000 properties of which over 600 are castles, available in over 34,000 cities and 192 countries.
The late stage venture round is reportedly spearheaded by the the private equity firm TPG capital could value the company as high as $10B. Putting it in context, the company will be worth more than Hyatt Hotels, the hotel and gambling chain and Britain’s Intercontinental Hotels Group. The company has raised about $326M in funding from both seed and venture rounds. The company was previously valued at $2.5B following its Series C funding round from the heavyweights such as Andreessen Horowitz (Pinterest), Founders Fund (Facebook) and Sequoia Capital (WhatsApp) in a monster 200M funding round.
The product of friends Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk who found the company as a way to pay the rent for their apartment in 2009. After a slow start, the company has gained traction in all parts of the world from Rwanda to the US.
Concerns have been mounting regarding the sky-high valuations that have been put on Silicon Valley startups with WhatsApp becoming the symbol of the seeming overvaluation to those outside the Valley.
Source: WSJ; Crunchbase
Photo: Flickr
