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TechCrunch reports home/apartment rental platform Airbnb is in the process of raising funds at a $20B valuation - 2x what it was valued at in a $450M round last April. The company is "believed to be in the process of raising a war chest of close to $1 billion - with about half of that secured." Fidelity has been mentioned as a potential investor.
- Airbnb has 1M+ listings, operates in 34K cities within 190 countries, and has handled 30M booking nights over its history. The company has become a thorn in the side of top vacation home rentals platform HomeAway (NASDAQ:AWAY), though HomeAway (often used to rent secondary homes) has argued its listings are more complementary to Airbnb's (often used to rent primary homes) than competitive.
- There hasn't been any shortage lately of private tech companies that have reportedly sought or obtained $10B+ valuations. The list includes Snapchat, Pinterest, Palantir, and Uber.
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Previously: Gurley argues fear of missing out leading private valuations to soar
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Previously: HomeAway sues San Francisco over "Airbnb law"