Airbnb's New $1 Billion Funding Would Value It At $20 Billion

Techcrunch is reporting that Airbnb is raising a new round of funding that would give it access to $1 billion at a $20 billion valuation.

The funding comes at a transition time for Airbnb as it solves some regulatory issues in cities such as San Francisco and Amsterdam while dealing with renewed or continued challenges in markets like New York City and Portland, OR.

Airbnb is the second most valuable travel startup, ranking behind Uber's $41 billion valuation. Airbnb closed a $475 million round in April 2014 at a $10 billion valuation. It has raised nearly $800 million since its founding in 2008.

At $20 billion, Airbnb is valued at the high end when compared with the market capitalizations of traditional hotel brands as well as sometimes competitor HomeAway.

When Airbnb last raised money, we compared the value of an Airbnb listing with that of a room in a traditional hotel. Airbnb ranked third among its competitors. With the new valuation, each Airbnb listing would be worth nearly as much as a room is worth at Hyatt, which gets the greatest value from each room.

Source: Yahoo Finance, reports