Airbnb is in talks with investors to raise $1.5 billion in new financing as the home- and apartment-rental website makes a move to tap into the hot Asian market and expand services in Latin America.
The funding, on Friday, would value the San Francisco company at $24 billion. That would make Airbnb the third most-valuable venture-backed company in the world, behind ride-booking firm Uber and China s consumer electronic giant Xiamoi. It would also far eclipse Airbnb s funding to date — $800 million, currently valuing the company at $10 billion.
The report comes on the heels of multiple reports , which would value the company at a whopping $50 billion, making it the highest-valued VC-backed company in the world.
While Airbnb hasn t yet hit the 10-digit funding round, a billion-dollar-plus financing is old news to Uber. The company raised $1 billion in the first quarter of this year, $1.8 billion at the end of last year and another $1.2 billion in the summer of 2014.
If both funding rounds are completed, Airbnb and Uber would tie with Facebook for the biggest equity investment into a private tech company. Facebook raised $1.5 billion in 2011, a year before its initial public offering.
Image from Airbnb
