Airbnb Raises $850 Million, as Valuation Tops $29 Billion

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Airbnb Raises $850 Million, as Valuation Tops $29 Billion

© Thinkstock

According to Equidate, Airbnb raised $850 million last month. The value of the real estate sharing service has risen from $3.25 million in April 2009 to $29.7 billion as it closed its Series F round.

Equidate shows Airbnb raised $1.6 billion in its Series E round last year, when the value of the company was $25.8 billion. Airbnb can claim to be one of the huge unicorns, one that has not taken a “down round,” which would cut its valuation. Investors clearly think its model will make it one of America’s most valuable private companies.

Airbnb has begun to brand out, in one case to a business that it can barely explain with any clarity. Management describes its new Samara project as follows:

We’re already at work asking a lot of questions and exploring a wide range of concepts, all connected by the possibility of serving the future of our community. How might community change what it means to be displaced in the world, and could technology play a role in that? How can travelers interact with shrinking communities? What makes a home truly smart, and how does that affect those who interact with it? While we’re interested in designing services, we don’t want to lose sight of what really drives us, and we definitely don’t want to stop asking questions. I’m super excited for what comes next.

Design what?

[nativounit]

No matter what outsiders think about the future of Airbnb and whatever businesses it may enter, it has found homes and apartments for “100 million guests.” Many consumers and business travelers have decided it is the next generation of hotel. And the hotel business is one of the larger ones in the United States. It is worth noting, however, that the hotel business also is one of the most competitive in the country.

[wallst_email_signup]

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618