Airbnb has raised $1.5 billion in one of the largest ever private-funding rounds.
The funding, which was led by private-equity firms General Atlantic, Hillhouse Capital Group and Tiger Global Management, values the company at $25.5 billion.
The only companies to have raised more equity funding in a single private placement are Uber, Alibaba and Facebook.
The valuation of Airbnb at $25.5 billion makes it the third most valuable company on the list of venture-capital backed start-ups valued at $1bn or higher – with only Xiaomi and Uber beating it.
The company’s revenue is expected to exceed $900 million this year and is projected to reach $10bn by 2020.
The growing success of the company has seen more than 1.4 million rooms, apartments and houses be listed on its website. It takes a 3% cut of each booking on the site and a 6% to 12% service free from guests.
Morgan Stanley served as an adviser on the deal which also included Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Buyers, GGV Capital and Horizon Ventures.
Banks have recently been making a bigger push to advise on giant private rounds, which are helping to delay IPO’s. Recently Spotify AB’s $526 million offering came via Goldman Sachs and Credit Karma’s $175 million round came from both Goldman and J.P. Morgan Chase.
