At a Disrupt Europe conference, Airbnb co-founder and CTO Nate Blecharczyk had confirmed news about the company raising USD200 million in an investment round a year ago. Moreover, the funding round was led by private equity firm Founders Fund. Blecharczyk also revealed that the investment made by Founders was the latter's biggest deal at that time.
Airbnb grew to be one of the biggest social networking services in the world. Its platform services for short-term accomodations for rent has over 500,000 listings in 33,000 cities.
In October 2012, a Techcrunch report said the USD200 million round had raised the company's market valuation to USD2.5 billion. When asked why Airbnb did not confirm the report, Blecharczyk disclosed that Airbnb as a consumer company was not interested sharing financial figures. Blecharczyk's invesment round fund revelation started when a panel question asked Airbnb's exit strategy.
"We're definitely committed to remaining independent. (And if Airbnb decides to go public, that would be a) means to an end. We're very well-financed, so I don't think we are concerned with that," Blecharczyk said.
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