Airbnb raises $500 million in funding, now valued at $10 billion

Airbnb, the service that lets people rent their houses, apartments and rooms over the Internet to strangers, has taken a $500 million round of new investment, which values the company at a staggering $10 billion, according to TechCrunch. It is not a surprise that the fund-raise or the valuation is that high — Airbnb is a transactional app and website through which 11 million people have booked stays in 34,000 cities.

TechCrunch has learned that Airbnb, the fast-growing site that lets people become hoteliers by renting out sofas, rooms or entire private homes, has now closed its latest round of funding: $500 million, led by private equity firm TPG, at a $10 billion valuation, according to our sources. This brings the total raised by Airbnb to $826 million. Negotiations around the funding were previously reported by the Wall Street Journal, which reported that TPG and Dragoneer Investment Group were leading the round, and that mutual funds including T. Rowe Price were also involved. We understand from sources that Allen & Co. — known for its recent work advising Facebook on its $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp, working on Twitter’s IPO, and helping Dropbox with its latest, $350 million round — has been helping to orchestrate this round for Airbnb.