Is Airbnb headed for an IPO after it raises its next $100 million round of funding?

It’s the darling of “sharing economy” startups, Y Combinator and a good portion of Silicon Valley’s top investors, and a symbol of consumer web startups moving beyond entertainment to solve real life problems. Now we’re hearing short-term room-renting site Airbnb is also something else — one of the very few name-brand startups raising a massive new round of funding these days.

There were 10 million bookings on the site this June. Photo by Phil Campbell.

We slipped this rumor into a panel discussion at Disrupt a couple weeks ago, actually, but we’ve been busy collecting more details. Here’s what we’ve got so far: the San Francisco company is raising around $100 million in a third round of funding at a valuation “north of a billion” between $2 billion and $3 billion. While many of its lengthy list of current investors are considering participating, we’re told, a new firm is coming in to lead the outside round.