Airbnb, the US-headquartered short-term accommodation marketplace backed by internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet, filed yesterday to raise up to $1bn in its initial public offering.
Founded in 2008, Airbnb operates an online platform that lets users book accommodation around the world at the homes of some 4 million hosts, in addition to discovering local experiences.
The company has seen a significant downturn in business this year as the covid-19 pandemic has sharply impacted travel but has partially made up for it by putting more focus on longer term stays.
Airbnb has accordingly seen its revenue drop more than 30% year on year to about $2.52bn in the first nine months of 2020 while its net loss more than doubled from $323m to $698m in the same period.
Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners provided $1bn in debt and equity financing for the company in April this year at a $26bn pre-money valuation, having raised $228m from unnamed investors the previous year.
Alphabet’s growth capital unit, CapitalG, co-led Airbnb’s $1bn series F round with TCV at a $31bn valuation in 2017, increasing its overall funding to $3.4bn.
Financial services and investment group Fidelity had joined Tiger Global Management, GGV Capital, Horizon Ventures, Baillie Gifford, Temasek, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, General Atlantic, China Broadband Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Wellington Management and T. Rowe Price to invest $1.5bn in 2015.
The company’s earlier investors include Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Tuesday Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, Founders Fund, TPG, Firstmark Capital, Y Combinator and SV Angel.
Airbnb’s 17.3 million class A shares are held by its growth-stage investors while its 494 million class B shares are owned by its executives and some of its early backers, including Sequoia, which holds 16.5%, Founders Fund (5.4%) and DST Global (2.3%).
The company’s notable class A shareholders are Silver Lake (23.5%), Sixth Street (18.5%), DST Global (17.5%), Poulin Family Trust (13.1%), Greystar Investment Group (5.4%), Accel (5.3%) and Sequoia (4%).
The offering will take place on the Nasdaq Global Select Market and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are the representatives of the 37 underwriters, which also include Allen & Company, BofA Securities, Barclays, Citigroup Global Markets, BNP Paribas Securities and Mizuho Securities USA.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA), Deutsche Bank Securities, Jefferies, Wells Fargo Securities, Robert W. Baird, Canaccord Genuity, Cowen and Company, DA Davidson, JMP Securities, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Needham & Company, Oppenheimer, Piper Sandler and Raymond James are also among the underwriters.
The list is completed by Stifel Nicolaus, Wedbush Securities, William Blair, Academy Securities, Blaylock Van, CastleOak Securities, CL King, Guzman & Company, Loop Capital Markets, MFR Securities, Mischler Financial Group, Samuel A. Ramirez, Siebert Williams Shank, Telsey Advisory Group and Tigress Financial Partners.
