Airbnb doesn’t need any introduction to travellers on a budget, and that’s big for a company which doesn’t own even a single hotel, and was founded only in 2008. Seems like the big guns of the venture capital world have recognized the value of the business. Airbnb is reported to have been infused with a funding of $1.5 billion, making the lodging rental site worth $25.5 billion. That’s as big as it gets, and is one of the largest amounts of private capital a tech firm has ever received. To give you a perspective, at that valuation, Airbnb is valued much higher than even Twitter, a publicly listed company, and one of the largest social networks in the world.
Launched in San Francisco in 2008, the home rental company now boasts a community of more than 35 million travellers in more than 34,000 cities and 190 countries. With twelve offices located across the world, including Barcelona, Copenhagen, Dublin, London, Moscow, San Francisco (HQ), São Paulo, Singapore and Sydney, Airbnb is well entrenched in the accommodation business for the global traveller. The valuation of the company with the capital infusion is much more than some of top hotel chains in the world, including Marriot and is just a little shy of the valuation of the global hotel giant Hilton.
The funds which have participated in the capital infusion include private equity firm General Atlantic, Hillhouse Capital Group, a Chinese fund manager, and Tiger Global Management.
At present, the Airbnb founding team acts as the key managerial staff for the company and includes Brian Chesky, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; Joe Gebbia, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer; and Nathan Blecharczyk, Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer.
Airbnb’s primary source of revenue is service fees from bookings. The company charges between 6% and 12% as service fees depending on the price of the booking. Airbnb also charges the host 3% from each guest booking for credit card processing
An official announcement of the deal can be made by the next week.