Yahoo Finance Airbnb is raising money at a $30 billion valuation
Airbnb is raising money at a prospective $30 billion valuation, the New York Times reported Tuesday (June 28). The round, if completed, would bump Airbnb ahead of Chinese taxi and ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing as the third-most valuable tech startup in the world. Uber holds the top spot, followed by Chinese consumer electronics company Xiaomi.
Sources told the Times that Airbnb plans to use the new financing to expand globally. Airbnb closed a $1.5 billion series E funding round last June that valued it at $25.5 billion. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Airbnb had secured a $1 billion line of credit led by JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America.
Airbnb has more than 2 million listings in nearly 200 countries. Its international goals include building a stronger presence in Cuba, winning over Chinese tourists, and working with local governments to get pro-home-sharing rules on the books.
Closer to home, Airbnb is going after the heart of the hotel business with new listings designed specifically for corporate travelers. It’s also grappling with systematic racial discrimination from hosts, facing a crackdown from the New York state legislature, and, as of Monday, suing San Francisco over short-term rental rules that the city’s board of supervisors passed unanimously at the start of June.
Airbnb can surely put any new funding to good use.
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