Airbnb raises $850 million in Series F round

As per the latest disclosure filed with the state of Delaware and reports from Equidate, Airbnb Inc has raised fresh funds worth $850 million in its Series F funding round.

Though the investor remains undisclosed as of yet, with this investment Airbnb has risen from $3.25 million in April 2009 to $29.7 billion now. It has tripled its valuation making it the fourth most valued tech company in the United States.

The filing also disclosed that Airbnb is looking at bringing in additional late-stage capital. Experts are of the opinion that now Airbnb wouldn’t want to dilute more of its equity in return of hefty cash and return.

According to Equidate, Airbnb had raised $1.6 billion in its Series E round last year, when the value of the company was $25.8 billion.

It can now claim to be one of the huge unicorns, which has not taken a “down round” that would cut its valuation.

It is also touted to follow the more often route Uber has recently taken to fight its Chinese rival Didi. It decided to not further dilute its equity and raise $1.15 billion in the form of leveraged loans.

Airbnb has already once followed this strategy to obtain $1 billion in debt facility from some of the largest banks in the U.S. and the company is now taking strategic steps to prolong its IPO.

Founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk, the company was started as an online marketplace that enabled people to list, find, and rent homes in a foreign land. The company failed three times , before gathering itself into its current form, with listings in over 191 countries.

Based out of San Francisco, California, Airbnb now has more than 50 million people around the world who have listed their properties on the platform and serves over 30 million people every year.